U.S. imposes duties on structural steel from China, Mexico (updated)

Wison Engineering Services

04/09/2019 21:41

(Adds details on anti-dumping investigations)
    WASHINGTON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department
said on Wednesday it imposed duties on Chinese and Mexican
structural steel after making a preliminary determination that
producers in both countries had dumped fabricated structural
steel on the U.S. market at prices below fair market value.
    The department said it imposed duties of up to 141% on
Chinese structural steel and up to 31% on Mexican structural
steel and will begin collecting cash deposits for imports based
on those rates.
    Commerce said it had found that imports of Canadian
fabricated structural steel did not violate U.S. anti-dumping
laws.
    Most Chinese steel products have largely been excluded from
the U.S. market by prior Commerce Department anti-dumping duties
and President Donald Trump's 25 percent punitive tariffs. The
latest order seeks to prevent Chinese downstream structural
steel assemblies from skirting those duties and entering the
United States.
    Commerce found that one Chinese producer, Modern Heavy
Industries (Taicang) Co Ltd, did not dump product into the
United States, but it imposed dumping rates of 52% on Wison
(Nanton) Heavy Industry Co Ltd and up to 141% on other Chinese
fabricators.    
    The department is scheduled to release final anti-dumping
duties in its fabricated structural steel investigation on or
about Jan. 24, 2020. The U.S. International Trade Commission
needs to find that American steel fabricators suffered injury
from Chinese and Mexican imports for the duties to be locked in
place for a five-year period.
    In 2018, U.S. imports of fabricated structural steel were
valued at from $722.5 million from Canada, $897.5 million from
China, and $622.4 million from Mexico, Commerce said.
    The products covered by the investigation are prefabricated
from beams, girders, columns plates and flanges for erection or
assembly into structures, such as buildings, parking decks,
hospitals, arenas and ports. The investigation excludes concrete
reinforcing bar structures, steel bridge sections,
pre-fabricated steel buildings and steel utility poles, among
other products. 

 (Reporting by Eric Beech and David Lawder; Editing by Mohammad
Zargham and Leslie Adler)
 ((eric.beech@thomsonreuters.com; 202-898-8322; Reuters
Messaging: eric.beech.reuters.com@reuters.net))