Last week, the International Trade Commission (ITC) held its Injury Hearing in the investigation of carbon and alloy wire rod imports from ten countries – Belarus, Italy, Korea, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom. Four domestic rod mills have petitioned the US government to impose antidumping and countervailing duties against these wire rod imports. The Department of Commerce has announced its Preliminary Margins (potential duties) and will announce its Final Margins in December and in early 2018.
AWPA participated in the ITC hearing, opposing the petitions, with prepared testimony from five wire company members – John T Johnson-Mid-South Wire, Terry Hughes-Bekaert Corporation, Chris Stauffer-Insteel Industries, Bob Moffitt-Heico Wire Group – and Kimberly Korbel, AWPA Executive Director. Sebastian Frey of Tata (member trading company), also testified in opposition to duties. The ITC Commissioners then posed questions to the AWPA members, the US Tire Manufacturers Association, and the attorneys and witnesses representing Korea, Turkey and the United Kingdom. The testimony of the AWPA wire company members, can be found on the AWPA website, along with the Prehearing Briefs, submitted to the ITC prior to the hearing.
There are currently four ITC Commissioners who will vote as to whether the US Wire Rod industry is materially injured by reason of imports from these 10 countries. The Commissioners will decide, based on data it has collected and the testimony and briefs submitted, whether or not there is financial injury to the US industry. If the industry is found to be injured, the Commissioners must decide if imports are a cause of the injury.
Two strong themes came out in the testimony and prehearing briefs. First, should 1080 Tire Cord wire rod be included in the scope of this investigation? If tire cord wire rod is excluded from the scope, the total amount of wire rod imports and the US market share calculations would be different. Second, should Georgetown Steel and Republic Steel be included in the calculations of financial injury?
Testifying on behalf of the rod industry at the ITC hearing were Eric Nystrom-Nucor, Chris Armstrong and Steve Ashby-Keystone Steel & Wire, Marcelo Canosa-Gerdau and Roxanne Brown of the United Steelworkers. Charter Steel, while a named Petitioner, did not appear at the hearing.
The Commission will vote twice in this case. On December 20, the ITC will vote in the case of Belarus, Russia and United Arab Emirates. The vote on the remaining seven countries will take place in the New Year and has not been scheduled. A tie vote (2 to 2) is a vote for the petitioners, therefore, in order to prevail, the AWPA will need at least 3 of the Commissioners to vote Negative (no-injury).
If AWPA members have questions, please contact Kimberly Korbel at kkorbel@awpa.org.