By Craig Tarasoff
AK Steel, a US-based steel distributor, has seen its stock
rise 7% after the ITC’s ruling against its foreign competitors. The
anti-dumping order was issued after the commission found that electrical steel
imports from several European and Asian countries were damaging the domestic
market. China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Sweden and Taiwan were found to have
been causing harm to the US market for non-oriented electrical steel, and will
be forced to pay fines as a result. AK Steel now looks to regain losses
suffered from depressed electric steel prices. The
Street has the story.
By Jieying Ding
The United Steelworkers (USW), a union that
represents 850,000 workers, welcomed the International Trade Commission’s (ITC)
decision to continue to investigate antidumping and countervailing duties on welded
line pipe from Korea and Turkey, according to the PR
Newswire. The USW joined the petition, which alleges dumping margins as
high as 221% against Korea and 16% against Turkey. The USW president Leo Gerard
called for fair trade to revitalize manufacturing sector. Welded line pine is
generally used for transporting oil and natural gas from fields to larger
pipelines.
By Craig Tarasoff
The United States Court of International Trade has found
that imports of xanthan gum, a food additive, from Austria and China did not
materially injure the US domestic market. CP Kelco, a US producer of xanthan
gum, argued that imports from Austria and China were being “dumped,” or sold in
the US at less than fair market value, thereby unreasonably suppressing
domestic prices. However, Judge Goldberg affirmed the ITC’s use of cost of
goods sold (COGS) to net sales ratio to show that the effects of the import
would not be felt at a market-wide level. This ratio is considered an indicator
of price suppression especially when COGS rises at a faster rate than net
sales. While the court found that China was not currently injuring the domestic
injury, it noted that China posed a threat in the near future. As a result, it issued
an anti-dumping order against China in an effort to protect domestic industry. Bloomberg
has more details on the case.
