Final Thoughts

June 22, 2015

I was advised by the US Department of Commerce that they will announce tomorrow (Wednesday, June 24) whether they will “…initiate AD and CVD investigations of imports of corrosion-resistant steel products from China, India, Italy, Korea and Taiwan.” We will have a fact sheet from them outlining their decision and we will provide it to our readers as soon as we get the decision. I would be shocked if the DOC did not initiate an investigation.

We have an article in tonight’s edition of SMU about cold rolled exports from China being hit by dumping duties out of Mexico. My sources are advising that the cold rolled suit will be filed during the 3rd Quarter 2015 (July has been mentioned on a couple of occasions). I am also being told that hot rolled suits could come at the same time, although those would not be against China as we already have restrictions against imports of HRC from China into the United States.

Cold rolled is a much more difficult product to find injury as it is considered a “transitional” product between hot rolled and coated steels.

Trade attorney, Larry Friedman of Barnes Richardson, told the ASD meeting last week that one of the issues with filing trade cases is you sometimes open Pandora’s Box by allowing non named countries to begin making a market here in the United States. One country on the move is Vietnam. A manufacturing company shared a quote out of Vietnam with me this afternoon for prepainted Galvalume. Is it better to have prepainted Galvalume coming from Taiwan and South Korea or Vietnam?

The Vietnamese mills are also bright enough to inquire with SMU about getting Premium subscriptions to our services…

As always your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.

John Packard, Publisher