Commerce levies stiff antidumping duties in steel wire rod case

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Commerce has made affirmative final antidumping determinations against imports of carbon and alloy steel wire rod from Belarus, the Russian Federation and the United Arab Emirates.

The final antidumping margin found for Belarus was 280.02 percent as a Belarus-wide entity, the agency said in its Nov. 21 determination.

For Russia, the margins were 756.93 percent for Abinsk Electric Steel Works Ltd. and JSC NLMK-Ural, and 436.8 percent for all others.

For the UAE, the margin was 84.1 percent for Emirates Steel Industries PJSC and for all others, the agency said.

Four U.S. steel makers—Gerdau Ameristeel US Inc., Nucor Corp., Keystone Consolidated Industries and Charter Steel—petitioned the International Trade Commission March 28, claiming that carbon and alloy steel wire imports were causing them material injury.

The countries the steel makers cited, besides Belarus, Russia and the UAE, were Ukraine, South Africa, Spain, Italy, South Korea, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

The ITC made a preliminary determination of material injury Oct. 2, and held a hearing Nov. 16 allowing both advocates and opponents of the antidumping duties to testify.

One of the opponents was the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association, which argued at the hearing that Grade 1080 and higher steel wire rod should be excluded from any duties.

Domestic steel wire rod suppliers simply cannot meet the volume and quality needs of the U.S. tire manufacturing industry, said Tracey Norberg, USTMA senior vice president and general counsel.

With these final determinations, Commerce has instructed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to start collecting antidumping duties from these producers. Because the agency found critical circumstances in the case of Russia, it has told CBP to collect duties from Russian steel wire rod producers effective 90 days from the publication of preliminary determinations in the Federal Register.

The ITC is scheduled to vote on a final determination of material injury Jan. 5. Commerce decided to extend its consideration of steel wire rod imports from South Africa and Ukraine until Jan. 8, and there may be a further extension, according to an agency spokesman.

Determinations on the remaining five countries is scheduled for March 15, he said.