Steel Mills
Essar Steel Algoma Challenging Rebar Duty Exemption
Written by Sandy Williams
May 26, 2015
Essar Steel Algoma is asking for support from the City of Sault Ste Marie in challenging a request by the Independent Contractors and Business Association (ICBA) and the province of British Columbia for ‘regional exemption’ of anti-dumping and countervailing duties on rebar imports.
“Although we are not a rebar producer, it is our view that such an exemption would create a dangerous precedent, opening the potential for similar claims in the future from other regions and for other Canadian industrial products, such as hot and cold rolled sheet and plate,” said Essar Steel Algoma in an email to SMU. “It undermines Canada’s trade laws by actively encouraging unfair imports, favouring unfairly traded foreign products and workers over those in Canada. Such an exemption could bring economic harm to Canadian manufacturers, their suppliers and their employees across Canada, including here at home in Sault Ste. Marie.”
Essar explained that in 2014, Canada’s rebar producers initiated a complaint against illegally dumped and subsidized imports of rebar from China, South Korea and Turkey. The Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) determined in 2015 that such imports injured Canadian producers and established tariffs on rebar from all three countries.
ICBA and the province of British Columbia sought a ‘regional exemption’ from such duties but were denied an exemption by the CITT. Since then, the ICBA and BC have asked for a ‘Public Interest Inquiry’, again seeking a regional exemption.
Essar Steel Algoma and other steel industry leaders are seeking commitment from other manufacturing associations, individual companies, and provincial and municipal governments to intervene in the Public Interest Inquiry.
Essar Steel Algoma and Tenaris Canada, in separate communications, are asking the mayor and council of Sault Ste. Marie to submit a letter of protest to the exemption request to the CITT by July 6 and to participate in CITT tribunal hearings scheduled for July 27 to July 31 in Vancouver.
Sandy Williams
Read more from Sandy WilliamsLatest in Steel Mills
USW seeks clarity on USS plans for Granite City Works
The United Steelworkers union has asked U.S. Steel to elaborate on its Granite City Works plans following reports that the steelmaker is ending processing at the facility.
Nucor maintains plate prices, opens October order book
Nucor aims to keep plate prices flat for a seventh straight month with the opening of its October order book.
ArcelorMittal Mexico to import from sister mills as it works to resume DRI production
ArcelorMittal has partially restarted operations at its direct reduction plant in Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan. An explosion on Aug. 18 rocked the massive steelworks on Mexico’s Pacific coast, impacting production of direct-reduced iron (DRI).
Fall maintenance outages are coming in hot
Labor Day has passed, the sun is starting to set a little earlier each day, and cooler weather has begun to find its way down to many of us across North America. And you know what that means for the steel industry… Fall maintenance outages!
AISI: Domestic steel production ticks up
US raw steel production ticked up in the week ending on Sept. 6 after a decrease the week before, according to the most recent data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).