United States Steel Corporation (X)

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U.S. Steel Committed to Industrial Equipment & Construction Markets

On Sunday, SMU published in my Final Thoughts the following:

“There has also been discussion about U.S. Steel in the marketplace as to whether the mill has decided to concentrate on auto, appliance, energy and electrical markets and perhaps move away from other market segments. This could explain their decision to move away from indexed-based contracts and the removal of some of their blast furnaces from the existing market. I don’t know if this is indeed the case, and I will attempt to speak about this to U.S. Steel to see if we can get a response.”

U.S. Steel responded with, “We continue to provide products such as heavy gauge, wide hot-rolled coil into Industrial Equipment, as well as the light gauge Galvalume and Light gauge Galvanized products to our construction customers. We value all segments of our customer profile, and any plans to remove or replace certain segments will be communicated to our investors and clients.”

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New Bipartisan Legislation Aims to Make it Tougher for China to Dodge Trade Laws
Posted: November 27, 2019
Elizabeth Brotherton-Bunch

Elizabeth Brotherton-Bunch
Digital Media Director, Alliance for American Manufacturing

Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W. Va.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) introduced a new bill on Tuesday to “crack down on unfair trade cheating from nonmarket economies like China.”

O.K., we know: We need to be more specific here.

The Senators want to give the Commerce Department more power to hold China and other countries accountable when they evade anti-dumping (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD).

For those unfamiliar with this area of U.S. trade law, the United States issues AD/CVD duties when imported products are found to be sold below market value or to have received significant government subsidies when being produced. The idea is to level the playing field a bit for American workers and companies, who operate in a free and open market.

As the Senators note, AD/CVD rules are pretty common, and most countries follow them without issue. But nonmarket economies — especially China — work overtime to dodge these duties, engaging in “a sophisticated and government-backed effort to avoid the duties required.”

For example, China “alters their products slightly to get around the rules, violating the spirit of the law, if not the letter.” It isn’t individual Chinese companies doing this, remember: China uses “its vast government resources” to ensure these firms are able to evade U.S. trade laws and avoid the duties.

This new legislation is designed to allow the U.S. to better respond to this cheating and stand up for American workers and businesses who play by the rules. Politico reports:

“The proposed legislation would give the Commerce Department ‘additional flexibility’ when reviewing anti-circumvention petitions… The bill would allow Commerce to include any product that is interchangeable with a product that is already the subject of an anti-dumping or countervailing duty within the scope of that pre-existing order.”

There are plenty of examples out there that highlight the real-world consequences of China’s expert dodging of AV/CVD duties.

Take plywood.

The Chinese government long has subsidized plywood, and Chinese companies have dumped it into the U.S. market, priced far below market value. That hurt U.S. producers and led to layoffs.

In response, the U.S. government issued anti-dumping duties on these products, and American companies were able to hire back workers in Wisconsin, Maine, Vermont, North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia, and West Virginia, according to Kip Howlett, the president of the Decorative Hardwood Association.

“But China is circumventing these lawful duties, threatening to undo our progress,” Howlett added.

https://m.usw.org/blog/2019/new-bipartisan-legislation-aims-to-make-it-tougher-for-china-to-dodge-trade-laws