WASHINGTON, July 17, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The
U.S. Department of Commerce today issued its final antidumping
determinations concerning imports of grain-oriented silicon steel
(GOES) from Germany, Japan, and Poland. None of the foreign
producers in the three countries participated in the Commerce
Department's proceedings, and as a result the Commerce Department
relied on "total adverse facts available" in assigning preliminary
dumping margins to producers in each of the countries.
Following the Department's issuance of its preliminary
determinations in May, the Japanese and German producers requested
that the Department fully extend the deadline for issuing its
determinations into September. The US petitioners in the case
opposed the requests, urging the Commerce Department to act
promptly.
Because there were no further proceedings in the investigations
after the Commerce Department's preliminary determinations on
May 5, 2014, the final margins are
identical to the preliminary margins:
Germany:
|
ThyssenKrupp
–
|
241.91
percent
|
|
All others
–
|
133.70
percent
|
|
|
|
Japan:
|
Nippon and JFE
–
|
172.30
percent
|
|
All others
–
|
93.36
percent
|
|
|
|
Poland:
|
Stahlprodukt
–
|
99.51
percent
|
|
All others
-
|
78.10
percent
|
The Commerce Department's determinations follow the filing, on
September 18, 2013, of antidumping
and countervailing duty petitions by domestic GOES producers AK
Steel Corporation (NYSE: AKS) and Allegheny Ludlum, LLC d/b/a ATI
Flat Rolled Products, an Allegheny Technologies company (NYSE:
ATI), as well as the United Steelworkers ("USW"), which represents
workers engaged in the production of GOES at ATI Flat Rolled
Products. The International Union, United Automobile,
Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America ("UAW"),
which represents workers engaged in the production of GOES at AK
Steel Corporation, subsequently expressed its support for the
petitions. On March 5, 2014,
the Commerce Department announced its preliminary determination
that imports of GOES from China
benefit from subsidies bestowed by the Government of China, resulting in a preliminary
countervailing duty margin of 49.15 percent of the value of the
imported steel.
"This is a key step forward in this important case", said
David A. Hartquist of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, counsel to
petitioners. "These antidumping margins are locked in, and
importers of GOES must continue paying the US government cash
deposits equal to the antidumping margins on imports into the
US. Final decisions by Commerce with respect to the remaining
four countries, China, the
Czech Republic, South Korea and Russia, are due in late September. The
US International Trade Commission will hold its final hearing in
the case on July 24, to determine
whether dumped and subsidized imports of GOES have caused injury to
US producers."
GOES is a flat-rolled alloy steel product that contains by
weight at least 0.6 percent but not more than 6 percent of silicon,
not more than 0.08 percent of carbon, and not more than 1 percent
of aluminum. The petitions cover GOES that is sold in either
sheet or strip form, in coils or in straight lengths. GOES is
manufactured using a specialized rolling and annealing process that
yields grain structures uniformly oriented in the rolling (or
lengthwise) direction of the sheet, enabling it to conduct a
magnetic field with a high degree of efficiency. Based on
these unique product characteristics, GOES is used primarily in the
production of laminated cores for large and medium-sized electrical
power transformers and distribution transformers.
The petitioners are represented in these actions by David A. Hartquist and John M. Herrmann of the law firm Kelley Drye
& Warren LLP.
SOURCE Kelley Drye & Warren
LLP