Busy legislative activity on flat rolled trade cases

The US Department of Commerce (DOC) announced Wednesday the preliminary dumping margin of zero (0.00) percent for Nakornthai Strip Mill PCL (NSM) of Thailand as a result of their review period from November 1, 2004 to October 31, 2005. The review of G Street PCL was rescinded because of lack of shipments, and the review for Sahaviriya Steel Industries PCL (SSI) was stopped at the request of the US domestic flat rolled industry. Some years ago, imported hot rolled carbon steel flat products had been severely restricted by antidumping suits against eleven countries (Argentina, China, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Romania, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand and Ukraine). Consequently, up until a few months ago, hot rolled sheets and coils had seen higher price increases than most other steel products in recent years. The US International Trade Commission (USITC) did announce earlier this week that it will conduct full "sunset" reviews of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders against these hot rolled carbon steel flat products from all eleven countries. The process will take between six to seven months to complete, and all affected parties, US and foreign producers, US importers and US purchasers will be able to give their input in writing and during a public hearing. At times, foreign producers cede their time allocation at the public hearing to the US downstream industry. This just happened during the public hearing covering the sunset review of coated steel sheets. The US automotive industry took an active part, stating their case very eloquently. Free trade experts hope that the steel consumers will get this chance in this critical review for carbon steel flat products as well, and that the ITC and the DOC will not be persuaded by the US domestic steel industry to maintain these particular dumping suits.