The US Department of Commerce announced the initiation of new antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations to determine whether forged steel fluid end blocks from Germany, India, and Italy are being dumped in the United States, and to find if producers in China, Germany, India, and Italy are receiving unfair subsidies.
These antidumping and countervailing duty investigations were initiated based on petitions filed by the FEB Fair Trade Coalition (Cleveland, OH); Ellwood City Forge Company, Ellwood Quality Steels Company, and Ellwood National Steel Company (Ellwood City, PA); and A. Finkl & Sons (Chicago, IL).
The alleged dumping margins are 83.37 percent for Germany, 198.85 percent for India, and 87.04 percent for Italy.
There are 24 subsidy programs alleged for China, 16 subsidy programs alleged for Germany, 29 subsidy programs alleged for India, and 20 subsidy programs alleged for Italy.
If the DOC makes affirmative findings in these investigations, and if the US International Trade Commission (ITC) determines that dumped and/or unfairly subsidized US imports of forged steel fluid end blocks from China, Germany, India, and Italy are causing injury to the US industry, the DOC will impose duties on those imports in the amount of dumping and/or unfair subsidization found to exist.
The petitioners estimated that imports of forged steel fluid end blocks China, Germany, India, and Italy were valued at approximately $17.8 million, $23.3 million, $44.4 million, and $46.4 million, respectively, in 2018.
The ITC will make its preliminary determinations on or before February 3, 2020. If the ITC preliminarily determines that there is injury or threat of injury, then the DOC’s investigations will continue, with the preliminary CVD determinations scheduled for March 13, 2020, and preliminary AD determinations scheduled for May 27, 2020, unless these deadlines are extended.
Final determinations by the DOC in these cases are scheduled for May 27, 2020, for the CVD investigations, and August 10, 2020, for the AD investigations, but these dates may be extended.