AD Cash Deposits Begin for South Korean Tin Mill Steel
The Commerce Department reversed course in its final determination on antidumping duties for South Korean tin mill products, setting new AD cash deposit requirements on TCC Steel and all other South Korean exporters besides KG Dongbu Steel, according to a fact sheet released Jan. 5. Commerce had found no South Korean steelmaker was guilty of dumping tin mill products in its preliminary determination; on Jan. 5, it found that Dongbu is not dumping, but that the other steelmakers' tin mill should be subject to a 2.69% duty.
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Cleveland-Cliffs, which brought the case jointly with the United Steelworkers union, hailed the decision that China, Canada, Germany and South Korea are dumping tin mill steel. China was also found to be providing countervailable subsidies to its steelmakers.
Cleveland-Cliffs said these countries are "all the major sources of tin mill imports."
Consumer Brands Association, which represents the food manufacturers who buy tin mill steel to make cans for soup, vegetables or other foodstuffs, focused on the fact that Commerce said Turkey, the Netherlands, Taiwan and the U.K. were not dumping tin mill plate, and they characterized the dumping margins for the countries other than China as justifying "extremely low duties." Those duties range from 2.69% to 6.88%, and, in the case of Germany and South Korea, are on top of 25% tariffs on steel if the steel is outside a Section 232 quota. Canadian exports are not subject to Section 232 tariffs.
"Imports of tin mill steel are critical to ensuring the availability and continued viability of manufacturing cans, food, personal care and household products here in the United States, because the domestic industry, including petitioner Cleveland-Cliffs, has refused to make steel that meets the quality and width specifications required by downstream users," CBA CEO David Chavern said.
The day before the Commerce decision, the International Trade Commission held a hearing on whether the domestic steel industry has been injured by dumped imports. The ITC must find injury before Commerce can set AD/CVD orders on tin mill products from the four companies that remain subject to the probe -- China, Canada, Germany and South Korea.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, and West Virginia's two senators spoke in favor of a finding of injury. Cleveland-Cliffs, an Ohio-headquartered company, bought a Weirton plant in 2020 that makes tin mill plate.
Sen. Shelly Capito, R-W.Va., said at that hearing that about 300 people have been laid off at the Weirton plant due to foreign competition, leaving 600 workers there. She said there's been steelmaking in Weirton for 120 years.
"The decline of the U.S. tin mill market over the past decade is evident in the fact that there are only three domestic producers of tin mill products left in the United States," she said. "Tin mill steel is used to make tin cans, among other things, and we need to make tin mill steel here in America to have a secure food supply. Simply put, the United States cannot afford to lose any more production of this vital product."
Brown said Cleveland-Cliffs invested about $50 million in Weirton since 2020, and hired 200 workers before the layoffs last summer. "This case is important to America’s food supply chain. If domestic producers of tin mill products cannot obtain meaningful trade relief, we risk our food supply chain being completely dependent on imports. That is unacceptable," he said.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said there has been a surge of imports for the last three years.
However, a larger group of members of Congress has said that hiking prices of canned goods is harmful both to food packaging companies and consumers (see 2306160045). In December, two more letters of that kind were sent to the Commerce Department, arguing that China accounts for only 10% of imported tin mill, and that the domestic industry won't supply certain types of products, like those needed for easy-open cans. They said about half of tin mill consumed by the food packaging industry is imported.