News Content

US again hits China steel with 266pc duty after complaints of dumping

COLD-ROLLED steel producers from China, Brazil, India, South Korea, Russia, Japan and the UK, will be taxed as much as 266 per cent on their prices that are deemed unfairly low by the US Commerce Department.

Shipments from Brazil will face 39 per cent penalties, and South Korean producers will face taxes of as much as 6.9 per cent, reported Bloomberg News.

This is the second time since December that the US government has penalised foreign steel producers, including Chinese mills, for selling the metal in the US at unfairly low prices, or dumping.

Domestic producers including Nucor Corp. and US Steel began filing trade cases accusing some global competitors of unfair subsidies and other illegal trade practices in June.

US producers have filed cases accusing foreign steelmakers of dumping and subsidising four varieties of steel products.

In December, the government found that China, India, Italy and South Korea had dumped corrosion-resistant steel in the US and levied taxes of 256 per cent on imports from China. Other duties ranged from three to nine per cent.

The duties may not satisfy domestic producers, said Caitlin Webber, a Washington-based analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence."The dumping rates for South Korea, the second-largest source of these products, were far below what the US industry alleged," Mr Webber said in an interview.

"Apart from the prohibitive Chinese rates, this is the second disappointing dumping finding for the US industry and doesn't bode well for the industry's third and final case this year."

Regulators had previously determined that hot-rolled, cold-rolled and corrosion-resistant steel from China and other trading partners has been unlawfully subsidised.

Imports of cold-rolled steel fell by 9.4 per cent in 2015 to 2.43 million tons, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from the US Census Bureau.