Commerce sets duties for cold-rolled steel from China, Japan

The U.S. Commerce Department said Chinese producers and exporters of cold-rolled steel to the U.S. will receive a dumping margin of 265.79 percent, while Japan’s cold-rolled steel producers and exporters will receive a dumping margin of 71.35 percent.    The U.S. Commerce Department has made its final antidumping duty determinations for certain cold-rolled steel from China and Japan, based on its countervailing duty investigations on these imports from China.
   Dumping occurs when a foreign company sells a product in the United States at less than its fair value, while countervailable subsidies are government financial assistance limited to domestic companies or encourage the use of domestic inputs for exports.
   As a result of its antidumping investigations, Commerce said all Chinese producers and exporters of cold-rolled steel to the United States will receive a final dumping margin of 265.79 percent, while Japan’s cold-rolled steel producers and exporters will receive a final dumping margin of 71.35 percent.
   Commerce will now instruct Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits equal to the applicable “weighted-average” dumping margins on these imports.
   As a result of its affirmative final countervailing duty determination, and if the U.S. International Trade Commission issues an affirmative injury determination which is expected by June 30, Commerce will order the resumption of the suspension of liquidation and will require cash deposits for countervailing duties equal to the final subsidy rates established during the investigations.
   If the ITC issues negative injury determinations, the investigations will end and no producers or exporters will be subject to future cash deposits for either antidumping or countervailing duties, and all previously collected cash deposits will be refunded.
   The petitioners for these investigations included AK Steel Corp. of Ohio, ArcelorMittal USA in Illinois, Nucor Corp. of North Carolina, Steel Dynamics in Indiana, and U.S. Steel Corp. of Pennsylvania.
   In 2015, imports of cold-rolled steel flat products from China and Japan subject to the Commerce investigations  were valued at an estimated $272.3 million and $138.6 million, respectively.
   Meanwhile, Commerce’s final determinations in the investigations of cold-rolled steel from Brazil, India, South Korea, Russia, and United Kingdom have been extended and are scheduled to be announced by July 13.