Trade Cases

Flat Rolled Trade Suits Update

November 12, 2015

Steel Market Update (SMU) is constantly being asked to provide details as to the status of the hot rolled, cold rolled and corrosion resistant (CORE) antidumping and countervailing duty trade suits. This article is a follow up to an earlier article originally published on August 18, 2015.

The real action is beginning with the US Department of Commerce announcing both the critical circumstances decision and preliminary determination on countervailing duties (CVD) on corrosion resistant steels over the past 10 days. We will continue to see preliminary determination and critical circumstances announcements over the next few months. Here is the status of each investigation as of today, November 12, 2015:

CORE – Corrosion Resistant Steels (Galvanized/Galvalume, etc.)

Original Filing Date: June 3, 2015

Countries Affected: China, India, Italy, South Korea, Taiwan

Last week the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the first preliminary determination for countervailing duties on corrosion resistant steels (galvanized, aluminized, Galvalume, etc.). The announcement came a few days after US DOC announced their decision on critical circumstances on CORE as well. Duties will begin to be collected based on the date of the publication (November 5, 2015) of the CVD preliminary determination in the Federal Register.

Those countries/mills who were hit with critical circumstances will have to post CVD duties on steel which arrived into the United States 90 days prior to the date of publication. We calculated that date to be August 8, 2015. Those who were not hit with critical circumstances but were hit with duties in the countervailing duty preliminary determination phase will have to post duties for anything arriving on, or after, the publication date (November 5, 2015).

Critical Circumstances found (10/30/2015) on steel from: China, South Korea, Italy and India. Taiwan was found to not have any Critical Circumstances involved in their shipments.

Next Important Date: December 21, 2015, Preliminary Determination for Antidumping (AD) to be made by US Department of Commerce. The AD announcement will determine if the domestic steel industry has suffered “material injury” by the countries named in the trade suit. This will be the first time the new “level the playing field” language passed by the U.S. Congress will be used in a flat rolled trade case. Everyone is waiting with baited breath for this ruling (and the Final Determination to be made by the ITC commissioners next year).

If Antidumping is found those countries hit with Critical Circumstances will have to post duties for receipts of CORE products 90 days prior to the publication of the AD preliminary determination in the Federal Register.

Cold Rolled AD/CVD Trade Suit:

Original Filing Date: July 28, 2015

Countries Affected: China, Brazil, India, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Russia, United Kingdom (UK was removed from suit by US DOC when they ruled that the investigation should move forward)

Next Important Dates:

Preliminary Determination for Countervailing Duties (CVD): December 15, 2015.

Preliminary Determination for Antidumping (AD): January 4, 2016 (this can be extended).

Critical Circumstances filed on October 30, 2015. CC announcement will be made prior to any of the Preliminary Determinations being announced.

Hot Rolled AD/CVD Trade Suit:

Original Filing Date: August 11, 2015

Countries Affected: Australia, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Turkey, United Kingdom

Next Important Dates:

Preliminary Determination on Countervailing Duties (CVD): Was extended to January 8, 2016 in a notice published on October 21, 2015 in the Federal Register.

Preliminary Determination on Antidumping (AD): January 18, 2016 (this can be extended).

Critical Circumstances filed on October 23, 2015.