WEST CHESTER, Ohio,
Sept. 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- AK
Steel (NYSE: AKS) said today that the U.S. International Trade
Commission (ITC) has made a preliminary determination that
cold-rolled steel produced in seven foreign countries is causing or
threatening to cause injury to AK Steel and the domestic steel
industry. The preliminary injury determination means that
cases against cold-rolled steel producers in these seven countries
will proceed. The ITC also determined that imports of
cold-rolled steel from the
Netherlands are not causing or threatening to cause injury
to the domestic industry because the quantity of imports from
the Netherlands was "negligible,"
such that the imports comprised less than three percent of total
imports of cold-rolled steel during the 12 months preceding the
filing of the petition.
"We applaud the ITC's preliminary ruling against dumped and
subsidized imports of cold-rolled steel," said James L. Wainscott, Chairman, President and CEO
of AK Steel. "We expect all of our global steel
competitors to play by the rules of fair trade, and this ruling is
an important step in the fight to stop the injury to the domestic
steel industry caused by unfairly-traded imports of cold-rolled
steel."
AK Steel and certain other domestic steel producers filed
petitions with the ITC and the United States Department of Commerce
(Commerce Department) on July 28,
2015, charging that unfairly traded imports of cold-rolled
steel from Brazil, China, India,
Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, South
Korea and the United
Kingdom were causing material injury to the domestic
industry. Anti-dumping cases were filed against all eight
countries. Counter-vailing duty cases were filed against
Brazil, China, India,
Russia, and South Korea. The
cases now move to the Commerce Department for determinations as to
whether foreign producers are violating U.S. anti-dumping law by
selling their products at less than fair value in the United States and violating U.S.
counter-vailing duty law by selling merchandise that benefits from
unfair government subsidies.
The Commerce Department will calculate dumping margins, which
are designed to offset the amount by which the product is sold at
less than fair value, and subsidy rates, which are designed to
offset the amount by which the product benefits from unfair
government subsidies. Estimated counter-vailing and
anti-dumping duties will be collected from importers as of the date
of the Commerce Department's preliminary determinations, which will
occur on or about October 21, 2015
and January 4, 2016,
respectively. If foreign producers attempt to "beat the
clock" by increasing shipments into the U.S. market before the
Commerce Department's preliminary determinations, anti-dumping and
counter-vailing duties can be imposed retroactively beginning 90
days prior to the preliminary determinations.
Cold-rolled steel is hot-rolled steel that has been hardened
through the cold-rolling process and that may or may not undergo
further processing including annealing, hardening / tempering, and
temper rolling. While a substantial portion of cold-rolled
steel production is used "as is," a majority in the United States is further processed by
galvanizing or coating. Cold-rolled steel is primarily used
in appliances, automotive products, containers, and
construction.
AK Steel
AK Steel is a world leader in the production of flat-rolled carbon,
stainless and electrical steel products, primarily for automotive,
infrastructure and manufacturing, construction and electrical power
generation and distribution markets. Headquartered in
West Chester, Ohio (Greater Cincinnati), the company employs
approximately 8,000 men and women at eight steel plants, two coke
plants and two tube manufacturing plants across six states:
Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Additional information about AK
Steel is available at www.aksteel.com.
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SOURCE AK Steel