Trade Cases

Commerce increases import duties on Korean galv, plate

December 18, 2024

The US Commerce Department is raising the import duties on imports of corrosion-resistant sheet and cut-to-length plate from Korea, according to recent documents published in the Federal Register.

Coated sheet

Commerce recently completed a review of the antidumping duty (AD) order on Korean coated sheet, considering the one-year period ended June 30, 2023.

The agency determined a 1.99% dumping margin for the Dongkuk group of companies, one of two mandatory respondents in the review. Dongkuk’s margin was extended to the Posco, SeAH, and KG Steel groups.

The new margin is higher than the 0.53% rate set in the prior review and the 1.74% rate determined in the preliminary results of this 2022-2023 review.

Meanwhile, Hyundai Steel’s margin is unchanged at 0%, as Commerce said the company has not been dumping coated sheet steel into the US market.

CTL plate

Commerce also recently completed an administrative review of the countervailing duty (CVD) order on imports of cut-to-length steel plate from Korea’s largest steelmaker.

In the final results of a review of the 2022 calendar year, the agency established a subsidy rate of 1.47% for Pohang, South Korea-based Posco.

The subsidy rate is unchanged from the preliminary results of the review but is an increase from the rates of 0.87% and 0.33% de minimis found in the previous two reviews.

Korean quotas

Recall that US steel imports from Korea are exempt from the traditional Section 232 tariffs imposed in 2018. However, Korean exporters are limited in how much steel they can ship to the US, with quarterly and annual absolute quotas still in place. Additionally, they still must pay ADs and CVDs when appropriate.

Laura Miller

Laura Miller is a reporter and editor for Steel Market Update. She has held a variety of positions within the steel industry since 2007, including reporting and editing for Steel Business Briefing/Platts, the Association for Iron and Steel Technology, and Kallanish Commodities, as well as marketing for what was then known as ThyssenKrupp Steel USA (now AM/NS Calvert). After a five-year hiatus working across other industries, she returned to steel in 2021 and has covered the flat rolled, tubular, and trade areas of the industry. She is a member of the Association of Women in the Metal Industries and a past-president of the AWMI Pittsburgh Chapter. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at laura@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7869.