The US Department of Commerce imposed final antidumping duties on hot-rolled coil steel imports from seven countries as well as higher subsidy rates on most producers from Brazil, South Korea and Turkey, it said Friday.
The countervailing duty investigation results for South Korea, the largest exporter in the group in 2015, jumped in the final result from the preliminary ruling in January.
South Korea's POSCO and Daewoo International received a 57.04% subsidy rate, which was based on adverse facts available because Commerce was not able to verify parts of POSCO's questionnaire response.
The final subsidy rate for mandatory respondent Hyundai Steel and all other South Korean companies was 3.89%. The preliminary determination for all South Korean companies was less than 1% and therefore de minimis.
Commerce imposed a 9.49% dumping margin for Hyundai. POSCO received a 3.89% dumping margin, but no cash deposit because it was adjusted for the export subsidies identified in the countervailing duty investigation. All other South Korean companies are subject to a 5.55% dumping margin.
Brazilian companies received subsidy rates of about 11%, up from 7.42% in the preliminary ruling. Brazil's Usiminas received a 34.28% dumping margin and a 30.51% adjusted cash deposit rate that were based on adverse facts available. CSN and all other Brazilian HRC producers received a 33.14% dumping margin and a 29.07% cash deposit rate.
Turkey's Colakoglu received a de minimis final subsidy rate -- in line with Commerce's preliminary finding. All other Turkish companies would be subject to a 6.01% subsidy rate, which is higher than the de minimis rate found previously.
Colakoglu received a 7.15% dumping margin, while Erdemir received a 3.66% dumping margin. All other Turkish companies will be subject to a 6.67% antidumping duty.
Japan's JFE Steel received a 7.51% dumping margin, while Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal received a 4.99% dumping margin. Commerce issued a 5.58% dumping margin for all other Japanese companies.
Australian companies received a 29.37% dumping margin, up from 23.25% in the preliminary ruling.
The UK received a 33.06% dumping margin, which was lower than the 49.05% preliminary determination.
Commerce found a 3.73% dumping margin for the Netherlands.
Because of the rulings, Commerce will instruct US Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits based on the duty margins. The US International Trade Commission must also make final determinations that US steelmakers have been injured or threatened with injury by HRC imports that have been dumped and subsidized for the duty orders to be finalized.
A service center source said the ruling would make imports from POSCO, Australia's BlueScope Steel and Tata Steel UK uncompetitive. However, exports to the US by Tata Steel Ijmuiden in the Netherlands, Hyundai, Erdemir, Colakoglu and Japanese mills are still workable with their duty margins, the source said.
In December, Commerce preliminarily found that imports surged from Brazil and Japan and critical circumstances existed. Commerce on Friday said it continues to deem that critical circumstances exist with regard to Brazil and Japan, but not for Australia and the Netherlands.
As a result of the final finding, Customs will also collect duties for HRC entries that arrived 90 days prior the publication of the relevant preliminary determinations in the Federal Register. Commerce made its preliminary countervailing duty determination on January 11 and its preliminary antidumping duty finding on March 15.
The US ITC also must make an affirmative determination of critical circumstances for the retroactive duties to be imposed.
ArcelorMittal USA, SSAB Enterprises, Steel Dynamics Inc., AK Steel, Nucor and US Steel petitioned for the HRC investigations on August 11, 2015.
