Posted on 30 Jul 2015
The US sheet market finally saw the filing of a trade case against cold-rolled coil imports that had been anticipated for the greater part of a year.
The filing left many wondering what the end result will be when the dust settles.
Five major US steel producers named eight countries in their antidumping and countervailing duty petitions, and while the presence of the likes of China and Brazil was no surprise, other targets such as the Netherlands and UK led to a more mixed reaction.
A Midwest service center source said that while some of the countries named were smaller in overall volume, they were likely included in the filing as a result of an increased presence in the market following the termination of the US-Russian suspension agreement at the end of last year.
The source said Russian CRC offers were some of the lowest he had seen in the market and exporters in the UK and Netherlands anticipated being named.
He said this move was an “all-in bet” for the domestic mills and it was “now or never” for a filing.
There was some validity to the filing, the source said, adding that if you were to visit a port in the last few weeks it is tough to get material unloaded as there are barges seeking to do so.
However, the source did not think the US mills would be successful in getting substantial duties in place and findings would likely be below the alleged dumping margins.
A buy-side source said he was not surprised by the list of countries named in the CRC case, but was more surprised by the critical circumstance claim by US mills for corrosion-resistant steel.
He added he would not be surprised to see the same claim made with the CRC case.
A second buy-side source said he understood how these cases get filed, but was unsure how they get proven for certain countries on the list.
However, he said recent legislation changes including the Trade Preferences Extension Act could be the “game changer” that led the mills to be so aggressive in their approach.
However, “it has been business as usual on the day-to-day … steel trade” he said.
Another buyer agreed that domestically “everything is flat, nothing is moving.”
He said there needs to be an increase in demand before anything changes in the US market short-term.
Platts maintained its daily hot-rolled coil and CRC assessments at $460-$470/st and $580-$590/st, respectively.
