Trade Cases

Commerce Updates Duties on Hot Rolled from Turkey, South Korea

November 8, 2022

The US Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA) is updating import duties on hot-rolled steel flat products from Turkey and South Korea. The agency just released preliminary results in reviews of the countervailing duties on Turkish product and antidumping duties on South Korean product, according to Federal Register filings.

In the initial results of the AD duty administrative review for Turkey, the ITA found that Habas Sinai ve Tibbi Gazlar Istihsal Endustrisi AS did not make sales of HR steel at prices below normal value during the period of review Oct. 1, 2020, through Sept. 30, 2021. It therefore assigned the company a 0% preliminary weighted-average dumping margin. If this same margin is also found in the final results of the review, hot rolled imports from Habas will not be subject to AD duties. This would be a big change from the duties the company was previously subject to.

The ITA rescinded the prior one-year review of the AD duty on Turkish hot rolled at the request of US petitioners ArcelorMittal USA, Nucor, SSAB, Steel Dynamics Inc., and US Steel. The rescission resulted in the duties found in the previous one-year review of 24.32% being maintained.

Five other Turkish companies will still be subject to the 24.32% duty rate found in the 2018-2019 review. The rate for all other Turkish companies continues to be 2.73%.

In the CVD administrative review of the 2020 calendar year for South Korea, the ITA determined producers are still receiving countervailable government subsidies and therefore set a preliminary subsidy rate of 0.32% de minimis for Hyundai Steel and 0.33% de minimis for Posco. These rates are slightly lower than the 0.56% rates found in the prior administrative review of the 2019 calendar year, and since they are de minimis, no duties will be collected.

The ITA is giving interested parties time to comment on these preliminary results.

By Laura Miller, Laura@SteelMarketUpdate.com

Laura Miller

Laura Miller is a reporter and editor for Steel Market Update. Since 2007, she has held various editorial and marketing positions with steel industry publications, associations, and mills. In 2021, after a five-year hiatus working across other industries, she returned to steel trade journalism, joining SMU in 2022. She is a member of the Association of Women in the Metal Industries and a past-president of the AWMI Pittsburgh Chapter. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at laura@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7869.