Trade is always front and center in an election year. And 2024 is no different. There is no shortage of issues, with questions like the sale of U.S. Steel to Japan’s Nippon Steel, potential cracks in the USMCA, and Chinese overcapacity dominating the headlines. But how do you distinguish between issues that might just last until November, and what are the crucial questions that could affect your business for years to come?
Welcome back from Labor Day, from Steel Summit, and from whatever fun you might have had over the long weekend. Personally, I enjoyed camping with friends and family near Starved Rock. No one starved, there were no major injuries, and we enjoyed the many splendors of Mystical Fire. (Speaking of which, does that have industrial uses? But I digress.)
American Iron and Steel Institute President and CEO Kevin Dempsey discusses the need for updated trade remedy legislation in the US.
The Department of Commerce issued the p antidumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVDs) on corrosion-resistant steel products (CORE) from South Korea.
The European Commission has initiated a trade case investigating allegedly dumped hot-rolled coil imports from Egypt, India, Japan, and Vietnam. The European Steel Association (EUROFER) filed the complaint in June, according to an Aug. 8 notice in the Official Journal of the European Union.
The Department of Commerce is updating the antidumping duties on imports of circular welded carbon-quality steel pipe from the Sultanate of Oman’s Al Jazeera Steel Products Co.
The Court of International Trade (CIT) has ruled against BlueScope Steel and its affiliates' challenge of a sunset review of the antidumping duties on hot-rolled (HR) steel flat imports.
The US Department of Commerce has announced its determination that Vietnam will keep its classification as a non-market economy (NME) country.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has come out against Nippon Steel’s proposed buy of U.S. Steel because it doesn’t have union support, according to media reports.
Six steel industry organizations have urged House Speaker Mike Johnson to include the Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 Act in any proposed package of legislation against China’s "unfair" trade practices.
Nucor’s top executive expressed concerns over unfair trade practices, highlighting increased steel imports from Mexico and Canada.
Steel trade associations applauded the introduction of the “Prove It Act” into the House of Representatives on Monday.
North America has one of the most robust steel scrap markets in the world. The continent has a long history of steel production, significant imports of steel and steel-containing products, and mature steel consumption. Due to this, the reservoir of scrap available to be recycled each year in the US and other North American markets is substantial and growing.
It’s been a slow start to the week as far as news goes, something you’d expect ahead of a shortened Independence Day week. That said, it’s not as if transactions have completely ground to a halt. (Prices continue to drift lower.) And while news might be slow, rumors of low-priced deals, price hikes, and trade cases seem to have filled that void.
At the end of every Supreme Court term there are a few big cases. This year, there are more. The last day for releasing opinions comes July 1. On Friday, the Court issued a long-awaited and long-expected decision about interpreting statutes that give powers to administrative agencies, including (among many others) the Commerce Department, the […]
U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel explained their position on USS’ participation in US trade cases should their proposed nearly $15-billion merger deal go through. The companies hope to close the deal by the end of the year.
The Canadian Steel Producers Association (CSPA) has lauded Canada’s decision to launch an investigation into China’s unfair trade practices in electric vehicles (EVs). However, the association hopes the government will go even further and extend the investigation into other sectors.
We’ve been writing a lot about sheet prices, and those for hot-rolled (HR) in particular, coming down. Here's one thing that hasn't dropped: The wide spread between HR and cold-rolled (CR) prices. That's what's in a chart below. And I'm using it as a rough proxy for galv and G'lume base prices as well
The US OCTG Manufacturers Association (USOMA) announced that the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency made an initial affirmative determination of duty evasion practices.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has completed its portion of an expiry review of the antidumping duty orders on welded standard pipe from Pakistan, the Philippines, Turkey, and Vietnam.
A vote on Friday by the International Trade Commission (ITC) ensures that antidumping duties on certain steel sheet imports from Japan will continue for the mid-term.
President Biden said on Wednesday he would stand by his commitment to US workers regarding the proposed sale of U.S. Steel to Japan’s Nippon Steel.
The Biden Commerce Department just issued a broad rewrite of regulations dealing with a host of antidumping and countervailing duty issues. This week, I write about one of those issues, where it looks like Commerce made a wrong turn.
Nippon Steel has reaffirmed the value of its deal for U.S. Steel a day after President Biden issued a statement opposing the sale.
President Biden said on Thursday that it’s “vital” for U.S. Steel to remain an American steel company.
The International Trade Commission (ITC) voted earlier this month against imposing antidumping and countervailing duties on imports of tin mill products from four countries. When Cliffs filed trade cases on tin mill products in early 2023, the company claimed that the failure to get massive duties on imports would result in the closure of its mill in Weirton, W.Va. We don’t know the reasoning behind this decision, only that all four sitting Commissioners voted not to impose duties. We do know that Cliffs plans to close Weirton.
What’s something going on in the market that no one is talking about? That’s a question on our survey, and was also posed to many who graced the stage at our Tampa Steel Conference. Perhaps another way to phrase that is “not talking about publicly” or connecting the dots of steel market chatter to find a uniting central issue. I thought one respondent to our survey really summed up the current moment: “Right now it is all politics.”
Last week, steel consumers prevailed in a rare victory over US petitioners in trade cases on tin mill steel products. The US International Trade Commission (ITC) voted 4—0 that Cleveland-Cliffs, the sole remaining domestic producer of tin mill products (used to make containers such as “tin cans”) was neither injured nor threatened with injury by imports of competing products from Canada, China, and Germany. Imports from South Korea were found to be “negligible,” and the investigation on Korean imports was terminated.
At the final hour, the trade case investigating unfairly traded imports of tin mill products has been terminated.
Former President Donald Trump discussed, if re-elected, placing a 60%-or-more tariff on all Chinese imports in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.