(Washington, D.C.) (July 17, 2014) – The U.S. Department of Commerce today issued its final antidumping determinations concerning imports of grain-oriented silicon steel (GOES) from Germany, Japan, and Poland. None of the foreign producers in the three countries participated in the Commerce Department’s proceedings, and as a result the Commerce Department relied on “total adverse facts available” in assigning preliminary dumping margins to producers in each of the countries. Following the Department’s issuance of its preliminary determinations in May, the Japanese and German producers requested that the Department fully extend the deadline for issuing its determinations into September. The US petitioners in the case opposed the requests, urging the Commerce Department to act promptly.
Because there were no further proceedings in the investigations after the Commerce Department’s preliminary determinations on May 5, 2014, the final margins are identical to the preliminary margins:
Germany: ThyssenKrupp – 241.91 percent
All others – 133.70 percent
Japan: Nippon and JFE – 172.30 percent
All others – 93.36 percent
Poland: Stahlprodukt – 99.51 percent
All others – 78.10 percent
The Commerce Department’s determinations follow the filing, on September 18, 2013, of antidumping and countervailing duty petitions by domestic GOES producers AK Steel Corporation (NYSE: AKS) and Allegheny Ludlum, LLC d/b/a ATI Flat Rolled Products, an Allegheny Technologies company (NYSE: ATI), as well as the United Steelworkers (“USW”), which represents workers engaged in the production of GOES at ATI Flat Rolled Products. The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (“UAW”), which represents workers engaged in the production of GOES at AK Steel Corporation, subsequently expressed its support for the petitions. On March 5, 2014, the Commerce Department announced its preliminary determination that imports of GOES from China benefit from subsidies bestowed by the Government of China, resulting in a preliminary countervailing duty margin of 49.15 percent of the value of the imported steel.
“This is a key step forward in this important case”, said David A. Hartquist of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, counsel to petitioners. “These antidumping margins are locked in, and importers of GOES must continue paying the US government cash deposits equal to the antidumping margins on imports into the US. Final decisions by Commerce with respect to the remaining four countries, China, the Czech Republic, South Korea and Russia, are due in late September. The US International Trade Commission will hold its final hearing in the case on July 24, to determine whether dumped and subsidized imports of GOES have caused injury to US producers.”
GOES is a flat-rolled alloy steel product that contains by weight at least 0.6 percent but not more than 6 percent of silicon, not more than 0.08 percent of carbon, and not more than 1 percent of aluminum. The petitions cover GOES that is sold in either sheet or strip form, in coils or in straight lengths. GOES is manufactured using a specialized rolling and annealing process that yields grain structures uniformly oriented in the rolling (or lengthwise) direction of the sheet, enabling it to conduct a magnetic field with a high degree of efficiency. Based on these unique product characteristics, GOES is used primarily in the production of laminated cores for large and medium-sized electrical power transformers and distribution transformers.
The petitioners are represented in these actions by David A. Hartquist and John M. Herrmann of the law firm Kelley Drye & Warren LLP.