US DOC issues mixed results on flat steel from China

On Wednesday, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) announced the preliminary results of its administrative review of the antidumping (AD) order on hot-rolled carbon steel flat products from China.
 The review covers 18 Chinese producers/exporters - including Angang Group International (Angang) and Baosteel Group Corporation (Baosteel) - during the period from November 1, 2010 through October 31, 2011.
 
The DOC found that Angang failed to cooperate in the review, and the DOC assigned an "adverse facts available" dumping margin of 90.83 percent to Angang. This compares with Angang's current dumping duty deposit rate of 31.09 percent.
 
The DOC found that Baosteel did not have any shipments of hot rolled flat products to the US during the period of review, and the DOC preliminarily determined to rescind the review with respect to Baosteel.  Baosteel currently has a dumping duty deposit rate of 12.39 percent, and this rate will remain in place if the DOC makes a final determination to rescind the review.
 
The remaining 16 companies will continue to have the China-wide dumping duty deposit rate of 90.83 percent.
 
The DOC plans to complete this review by December 2012, and the current dumping duty deposit rate will remain in effect until the DOC's final results are published in the Federal Register.