Commerce finds dumping of steel rod imports

The Commerce Department has reached affirmative preliminary determinations in its dumping investigations of steel wire rod imports from Belarus, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.    The Commerce Department has reached affirmative preliminary determinations that steel wire rod imports from Belarus, Russia and the United Arab Emirates are being dumped on the U.S. market.
   Dumping occurs when a foreign company sells a product in the U.S. market at less than fair value. 
   Specifically, Commerce determined that exporters from Belarus have sold steel wire rod in the United States at a dumping rate of 280.02 percent. These same imports from Russia are being dumped on the U.S. market from 436.80 percent to 756.93 percent less than fair value, while UAE exporters have sold steel wire rod in the United States at 84.10 percent less than fair value.
   Since the companies in Belarus, Russia and the UAE that are under investigation failed to provide the information needed to determine the level of dumping, Commerce said it relied on information provided to it in the U.S. industry’s petitions.
   Commerce will now instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits from importers of carbon and alloy steel wire rod from Belarus, Russia, and the UAE based on these preliminary rates.
   According to Commerce, imports of steel wire rod in 2016 from Belarus, Russia, and the UAE were valued at $10.4 million, $32.3 million, and $7 million, respectively.
   The petitioners for the antidumping investigations were Gerdau Ameristeel US of Tampa, Fla.; Nucor Corp. in Charlotte, N.C.; Keystone Consolidated Industries of Dallas; and Charter Steel in Saukville, Wis. 
  The department is scheduled to make its final antidumping determinations for these investigations by Nov. 21. 
  The U.S. International Trade Commissions (ITC) is conducting parallel investigations to determine if the American producers have been harmed by the carbon and alloy steel wire rod imports from Belarus, Russia, and/or the UAE. If Commerce’s final determinations are affirmative, and the ITC makes affirmative final injury determinations, the department will issue antidumping orders. If the ITC does not find that U.S. producers have been harmed, then the investigations will end, and no duties will be collected.