Final Thoughts

January 18, 2017

The Chinese represent only 7 percent of the total plate imports into the United States. The CTL plate dumping/CVD suits will now focus on the countries that represented 66 percent of the plate imports: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. The Final Determination on these countries is due on March 30th.

The US Steel Section 337 complaint against China continues with a review of the dismissal of the antitrust claim coming up. The Commission will determine whether to conduct oral argument and announce a decision by no later than February 24, 2017. Oral argument, if granted, will be held on March 14, 2017.

The first hearing on the trade secret segment of the complaint will commence on April 25th followed by a second hearing on price fixing and false designation on July 31st.

The initial determination is due on Thursday, November 1, 201`7 and completion of the investigation should be done by March 2, 2018.

USS/POSCO announced a price increase of $40 per ton on HRP&O, cold rolled and galvanized steel.The mill is accepting orders for the month of March 2017.

A reminder that I will be out of the office Monday-Wednesday next week as we conduct our Steel 101 workshop in Huntsville, Alabama.

The next Steel 101 workshop will be in Toledo, Ohio on April 11th and 12th. Included with this workshop will be a tour of the North Star Bluescope steel mill.

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

John Packard, Publisher