Trade Cases
Commerce says Nippon dumped steel in US in 2022-23
Written by Laura Miller
November 15, 2024
Nippon Steel supposedly dumped hot-rolled steel sheet in the US in 2022 and 2023 at not-insignificant rates.
That’s according to the preliminary results of a review of the antidumping duty (AD) order on hot-rolled steel flat products from Japan. The US Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration is conducting the review; it will issue the final results at a later date.
The annual administrative review considered imports from two companies, Nippon Steel Corp. and Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co., between Oct. 1, 2022, and Sept. 30, 2023.
Tokyo Steel did not dump steel during that time, according to Commerce’s early review results, and was assigned a 0% margin, the same as the year before.
Meanwhile, Commerce determined that Nippon Steel sold HR steel in the US at prices below normal value, assigning it a weighted-average dumping margin of 29.03%. That’s up significantly from the 1.39% margin Nippon received in the prior one-year period.
Note that Commerce lumps Nippon Steel Corp., Nippon Steel Nisshin Co., and Nippon Steel Trading Corp. together as a single entity for its reviews.
It’s also important to note that these results are preliminary and could be adjusted higher or lower in Commerce’s final determination.
Still, the department’s findings are interesting considering Nippon’s still-pending purchase of U.S. Steel. Nippon’s first bid for USS came late in September 2023. So it will also be interesting to see the Japanese steelmaker’s dumping margins in the next review, which will look at October 2023 through September 2024.
Nippon Steel had not returned a request for comment by this story’s publication.
Note the domestic producers participating in this administrative review include Nucor, SSAB, Steel Dynamics Inc., and U.S. Steel.
Review of duties on Korean HR steel
Commerce also recently revealed the initial results of reviews of the AD and countervailing duty (CVD) orders on HR steel from South Korea.
Considering the same one-year time frame as above, Commerce set initial dumping margins of 2.10% for POSCO and 0.89% for Hyundai Steel.
Although those margins are slight, they are up from 0% in the previous review.
Commerce also found higher countervailable subsidy rates for Korean HR steel producers in 2022 vs. 2021.
For calendar-year 2022, Commerce set initial subsidy rates of 2.21% for Hyundai and 1.47% for POSCO. Those compare to the 2021 rates of 0.76% and 0.86%, respectively.
The department will finalize the AD and CVD margins in the coming months.
Laura Miller
Read more from Laura MillerLatest in Trade Cases
Mills allege ‘critical circumstances’ in CORE trade case vs. South Africa, UAE
"Recent activity in the marketplace strongly indicates that these imports are being rushed into the United States in an effort to avoid the imposition of antidumping duties," petitioners said.
European Commission eyes retaliation vs. Trump steel tariffs: Report
The European Commission is looking into making current quotas on steel imports stricter as a countermeasure to President Trump’s recently announced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the US, according to an article in Reuters.
Trump could levy tariffs on auto imports in April: Report
President Donald Trump said last week that he could place tariffs on auto imports, according to an article in Politico.
Section 232 tariffs are headed downstream
The Trump administration has revealed the list of derivative steel products being added to the Section 232 tariff list.
Leibowitz: In Trump’s brave new world of tariffs, what will stick and what will courts challenge?
With a chronic trade deficit, the administration will continue to cite more tariffs as necessary. This is in error, as noted above. Yet the base of President Trump’s support does not see it that way. More tariffs are possible. But the only way to reduce the US trade deficit substantially is to close the gap between savings and investment in the United States.