US sets final food can steel dumping duties on China, Canada, Germany, Korea
The seal of the U.S. Department of Commerce is pictured in Washington, D.C., 11 June 11 2012. EPA-Yonhap
The U.S. Commerce Department said Friday it found that imports of tin mill products from Canada, China, Germany and Korea are being dumped onto the U.S. market, and imports of tin mill products from China are also being subsidized.
The department also found that imports of tin mill products — a shiny silver metal widely used in cans for food, paint, aerosol products and other containers — from the Netherlands, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom are not being dumped, it said in a statement.
The final duties are largely in line with the Commerce Department's preliminary anti-dumping duties on the tin-plated steel imports from Canada, Germany and China imposed in August. With the exception of China, they are far lower than the double-digit and triple-digit duties initially sought by U.S. steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs and the United Steelworkers union in their petition for a Commerce investigation filed a year ago.
The department said Friday that the highest final anti-dumping duties of 122.5 percent will be imposed on tin mill steel imported from China. It also imposed countervailing anti-subsidy duties of 650 percent on tin mill products from top China producer Baoshan Iron and Steel and 331.9 percent on all other Chinese steelmakers.
Germany's ThyssenKrupp Rasselstein and other German producers were slapped with final anti-dumping duties of 6.88 percent, while Canada's ArcelorMittal Dofasco and other Canadian producers were hit with final anti-dumping duties of 5.27 percent.
Commerce imposed a final anti-dumping duty rate of 2.69 percent against Korea's KG Dongbu Steel after initially receiving no anti-dumping duties.
The department upheld its earlier findings that tin-plate steel from the Netherlands, Taiwan, Turkey and Britain were not dumped. The U.S. produces less than half of the tin mill steel it consumes, making the packaging industry reliant on imported steel.
"These findings demonstrate that Commerce took a careful and nuanced approach based on the particular circumstances presented by each company and the governing provisions of U.S. law," the department said in a statement.
For the duties to remain in place, the U.S. International Trade Commission must determine that American producers have sustained material injury due to the dumping findings. That vote is expected in the coming weeks. (Reuters)