Stainless bar makers file trade plea

By Staff -- Purchasing, 2/8/2001

Domestic stainless steel bar producers have charged six European and Asian countries with dumping products and have asked the government for enormous punitive tariffs (up to 268% above recently priced products). The countries cited are France, Italy, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. A countervailing-duty petition also was filed against Italian producers, alleging government subsidization.

U.S. stainless producers also are fighting to keep anti-dumping duties in place against producers in Brazil, India, Japan and Spain in a case settled in 1995 and now under sunset review. The U.S. International Trade Commission is expected to rule this year whether those orders will be revoked or kept on the books for another five years.

Imported bar accounted for 48% of apparent supply through September of 2000, up from 38% in the same period of 1999, according to the Specialty Steel Industry of the U.S., a trade group. The six countries' share of the import market grew from 24.9% in 1999 to 30.3% in 2000.

The petitioners allege that the volume of imports from the six countries named in the latest petitions began to increase shortly after the 1995 duties were imposed, rising almost 50% in 1999 from 1995 levels. In the first nine months of 1999, stainless steel bar imports from the six countries totaled 39,002 tons, growing 76% to 63,690 tons for the same period in 2000.