Introduction
On September 5, 2024, domestic producers of corrosion-resistant (CORE) steel products and a union filed petitions with the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) seeking the imposition of antidumping duties (AD) on imports of certain CORE steel products from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam and countervailing duties (CVD) on imports from Brazil, Canada, Mexico and Vietnam. Steel Dynamics Inc., Nucor Corporation, United States Steel Corporation and Wheeling-Nippon Steel Inc. filed the petition along with the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, CLC (the USW) (collectively, Petitioners). However, Nucor did not join the petitions on CORE from Mexico and U.S. Steel, Wheeling-Nippon and the USW did not join in the AD and CVD petitions on CORE from Canada.
The petitions are the latest trade actions against CORE steel products over the last four decades, including most recently the imposition of antidumping and countervailing duty orders on imports from India, Italy, China, Korea and Taiwan in 2016.
Under U.S. law, a domestic industry (including workers in that industry) may petition for the government to initiate an AD investigation into the pricing of an imported product to determine whether it is sold in the United States at less than fair value (i.e., “dumped”). A domestic industry may also petition for the initiation of an investigation of alleged countervailable subsidies provided by a foreign government to producers and exporters of the subject merchandise. DOC will impose AD and/or CVD duties on a product if it determines that imports of that product are dumped and/or subsidized, and if the ITC also determines that the domestic industry is materially injured or threatened with such injury by reason of imports of that product.
If the ITC and DOC make preliminary affirmative determinations, U.S. importers will be required to post cash deposits in the amount of the AD and/or CVD duties for all entries of the subject merchandise entered on or after the date of publication of DOC’s preliminary determinations. The preliminary AD/CVD rates can change in the final DOC determinations, following further factual investigation, verification, and briefing.
Scope
Petitioners have requested the following product scope for the investigations:
“The products covered are certain flat-rolled steel products, either clad, plated, or coated with corrosion-resistant metals such as zinc, aluminum, or zinc-, aluminum-, nickel- or iron-based alloys, whether or not corrugated or painted, varnished, laminated, or coated with plastics or other non-metallic substances in addition to the metallic coating. The products covered include coils that have a width of 12.7 mm or greater, regardless of form of coil (e.g., in successively superimposed layers, spirally oscillating, etc.). The products covered also include products not in coils (e.g., in straight lengths) of a thickness less than 4.75 mm and a width that is 12.7 mm or greater and that measures at least 10 times the thickness. The products covered also include products not in coils (e.g., in straight lengths) of a thickness of 4.75 mm or more and a width exceeding 150 mm and measuring at least twice the thickness. The products described above may be rectangular, square, circular, or other shape and include products of either rectangular or non-rectangular cross-section where such cross-section is achieved subsequent to the rolling process, i.e., products which have been ‘worked after rolling’ (e.g., products which have been beveled or rounded at the edges).
For purposes of the width and thickness requirements referenced above: (1) Where the nominal and actual measurements vary, a product is within the scope if application of either the nominal or actual measurement would place it within the scope based on the definitions set forth above, and (2) where the width and thickness vary for a specific product (e.g., the thickness of certain products with non-rectangular cross-section, the width of certain products with non-rectangular shape, etc.), the measurement at its greatest width or thickness applies.
The scope includes products in which: (1) iron predominates, by weight, over each of the other contained elements; and (2) the carbon content is 2 percent or less, by weight. Subject merchandise also includes corrosion-resistant steel that has been further processed in a third country, including but not limited to annealing, tempering, painting, varnishing, trimming, cutting, punching and/or slitting or any other processing that would not otherwise remove the merchandise from the scope of the investigations if performed in the country of manufacture of the in-scope corrosion resistant steel. All products that meet the written physical description are within the scope of these investigations unless specifically excluded. The following products are outside of and/or specifically excluded from the scope of these investigations:
- Flat-rolled steel products either plated or coated with tin, lead, chromium, chromium oxides, both tin and lead (‘terne plate’) or both chromium and chromium oxides (‘tin free steel’), whether or not painted, varnished or coated with plastics or other non-metallic substances in addition to the metallic coating;
- Clad products in straight lengths of 4.7625 mm or more in composite thickness and of a width which exceeds 150 mm and measures at least twice the thickness;
- Certain clad stainless flat-rolled products, which are three-layered corrosion-resistant carbon steel flat-rolled products less than 4.75 mm in composite thickness that consist of a carbon steel flat-rolled product clad on both sides with stainless steel in a 20%-60%-20% ratio; and
Also excluded from the scope of the antidumping duty investigation on corrosion-resistant steel from Taiwan are any products covered by the existing antidumping duty order on corrosion-resistant steel from Taiwan. See Certain Corrosion- Resistant Steel Products From India, Italy, the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Korea and Taiwan: Amended Final Affirmative Antidumping Determination for India and Taiwan, and Antidumping Duty Orders, 81 Fed. Reg. 48,390 (Dep’t Commerce July 25, 2016).”
According to the petitioners, the proposed scope is “largely the same as the scope of the earlier AD and CVD orders on CORE from China, India, Italy, South Korea, and Taiwan that were issued in 2016…. The only material change that has been made to the proposed scope for these petitions is to include additional alloy products.”
Foreign Producers and Exporters of Subject Merchandise
A list of foreign producers and exporters of CORE steel products, as identified in the petition, is provided in Attachment 1.
U.S. Importers of Subject Merchandise
A list of U.S. importers of CORE steel products, as identified in the petition, is provided in Attachment 2.
Alleged Margins of Dumping/Subsidization
Petitioners alleged the following dumping margins:
Australia: 45.50%-51.35%
Brazil: 47.0%-99.5%
Canada: 19.1%-51.3%
Mexico: 26.67%-41.08%
The Netherlands: 12.8%-20.6%
South Africa: 51.96%-52.02%
Taiwan: 67.9%
Turkey: 9.40%-24.47%
United Arab Emirates: 76.96%-78.41%
Vietnam: 158.83%
These are only estimates based on data most favorable to petitioners. DOC generally assigns duties at these alleged dumping rates to foreign producers and exporters that fail to cooperate with the investigation.
No specific subsidy rates are included in the petition.
Potential Trade Impact
According to official U.S. import statistics, imports of the subject merchandise totaled $2.9 billion and 2.5 million short tons in 2023, representing approximately three-quarters of all imports of CORE steel products into the United States.
Estimated Schedule of Investigations
