Trade Cases

Commerce says Nippon dumped steel in US in 2022-23

November 15, 2024

Nippon Steel supposedly dumped hot-rolled steel sheet in the US in 2022 and 2023 at not-insignificant rates.

That’s according to the preliminary results of a review of the antidumping duty (AD) order on hot-rolled steel flat products from Japan. The US Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration is conducting the review; it will issue the final results at a later date.

The annual administrative review considered imports from two companies, Nippon Steel Corp. and Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co., between Oct. 1, 2022, and Sept. 30, 2023.

Tokyo Steel did not dump steel during that time, according to Commerce’s early review results, and was assigned a 0% margin, the same as the year before.

Meanwhile, Commerce determined that Nippon Steel sold HR steel in the US at prices below normal value, assigning it a weighted-average dumping margin of 29.03%. That’s up significantly from the 1.39% margin Nippon received in the prior one-year period.

Note that Commerce lumps Nippon Steel Corp., Nippon Steel Nisshin Co., and Nippon Steel Trading Corp. together as a single entity for its reviews.

It’s also important to note that these results are preliminary and could be adjusted higher or lower in Commerce’s final determination.

Still, the department’s findings are interesting considering Nippon’s still-pending purchase of U.S. Steel. Nippon’s first bid for USS came late in September 2023. So it will also be interesting to see the Japanese steelmaker’s dumping margins in the next review, which will look at October 2023 through September 2024.

Nippon Steel had not returned a request for comment by this story’s publication.

Note the domestic producers participating in this administrative review include Nucor, SSAB, Steel Dynamics Inc., and U.S. Steel.

Review of duties on Korean HR steel

Commerce also recently revealed the initial results of reviews of the AD and countervailing duty (CVD) orders on HR steel from South Korea.

Considering the same one-year time frame as above, Commerce set initial dumping margins of 2.10% for POSCO and 0.89% for Hyundai Steel.

Although those margins are slight, they are up from 0% in the previous review.

Commerce also found higher countervailable subsidy rates for Korean HR steel producers in 2022 vs. 2021.

For calendar-year 2022, Commerce set initial subsidy rates of 2.21% for Hyundai and 1.47% for POSCO. Those compare to the 2021 rates of 0.76% and 0.86%, respectively.

The department will finalize the AD and CVD margins in the coming months.

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.