Salzgitter : Heavy plate supplies from Salzgitter AG in the USA imposes anti-dumping duties

On March 30, 2017, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) imposed stiff anti-dumping duties on deliveries of heavy plate from Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Belgium and other countries outside Europe. This is the outcome of a lawsuit filed by several US steel manufacturers in April 2016 in which these countries and their manufacturers are accused of price dumping and damaging the US market.

According to the definition of the World Trading Organization (WTO) dumping is defined as the price of a product when sold in the importing country being less than the price of that product in the market of the exporting country. The DOC also interprets this as the sale of an imported product at an 'unfair value'.

In the case of Salzgitter AG, deliveries of around 200,000 tons by Ilsenburger Grobblech GmbH and Mannesmann Grobblech GmbH were the subject of investigation. Over 90 % of this material is processed by EUROPIPE subsidiary Berg Steel Pipe Corporation in Florida, USA, into pipeline pipes for the US market. EUROPIPE is a joint venture between Salzgitter AG and AG der Dillinger Hüttenwerke.

On March 30, 2017, the DOC decided to impose an anti-dumping duty of 22.9 % on the Salzgitter Group's future plate deliveries to the US market.

Salzgitter AG has cooperated fully with the US authorities in clarifying the allegations and has undertaken considerable efforts in recent months to provide proof that the accusation of price dumping is unjustified. To this end, several million data records with information on all the heavy plate transactions of the Salzgitter Group in Germany and abroad were compiled and transferred. In analyzing the data and evaluating all the facts, no circumstances constituting dumping can be derived in the opinion of Salzgitter AG.

We therefore find the decision of the DOC and the level of anti-dumping duties on our products incomprehensible.