Posted on 20 Aug 2015
The U.S. International Trade Commission posted a notice in the
Federal Register saying it has instituted the investigation to determine
whether the U.S. industry is harmed by "imports of certain hot-rolled
steel flat products from Australia, Brazil, Japan, Korea, the
Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom."
Those products
"are alleged to be sold in the United States at less-than-fair-value and
alleged to be subsidized by the governments of Brazil, Korea and the
United Kingdom," the commission said in the notice.
The investigation came after American steelmakers filed complaints alleging that they were hurt by exports from South Korea. They demanded anti-dumping duties of up to nearly 160 percent on such exports.
The commission should reach a preliminary determination in antidumping and countervailing duty investigations in 45 days -- by Sept. 25 in this case -- unless the Department of Commerce extends the time, according to the notice.
South Korea is the largest exporter to the U.S. of hot-rolled steel flat products, with last year's total amounting to 1.2 million tons.
Since last month, the commission has also been conducting a separate investigation into claims that South Korea and other countries sell cold-rolled steel flat products at below-market prices.
