U.S. waives tariffs on Japanese aluminum for Tesla battery cells (updated)

Nippon Light Metal Holdings

24/06/2019 20:33

(Adds more details on request, background)
    By David Shepardson
    WASHINGTON, June 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department
has agreed to Tesla Inc's  TSLA.O  request to waive 10 percent
tariffs on imported aluminum from Japan used in the manufacture
of battery cells at Tesla's Nevada Gigafactory, government
documents show.
    The Palo Alto, California-based company made the request in
documents posted in April and said the aluminum is produced by
Nippon Light Metal Co Ltd  5703.T  and was seeking a tariff
exclusion for 10,000 tonnes annually.
    The Commerce Department said in a document dated June 5 and
posted on a government website in recent days that the aluminum
"is not produced in the United States in a sufficient and
reasonably available amount or of a satisfactory quality." The
waiver is good for one year. Tesla did not immediately comment.
    The battery cells are assembled into packs which are the
energy source for the Tesla Model 3 vehicle as well as energy
storage products, Tesla said in its request. "Tesla is the only
US manufacturer of these battery types and planned production of
these batteries will increase exponentially over the next few
years," the company's request said.
    Tesla's exclusion request specified several different width
and thickness for aluminum sheets. Tesla said U.S. manufacturers
cannot "meet the alloy composition or thickness requirements. 
Domestic producers also cannot meet the annual volume
requirement."
    No objections were filed to Tesla's request.
    Tesla previously sought other tariff exemptions from the
U.S. Trade Representative's Office for Chinese-made parts,
including the Model 3 car computer and the Autopilot "brain"
that were rejected.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N23K0S0

 (Reporting by David Shepardson
Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Sandra Maler)
 ((David.Shepardson@thomsonreuters.com; 2028988324;))