Mid Continent Steel & Wire, Inc., the largest U.S. producer of steel nails, today commended the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) for its final affirmative determination that the U.S. steel nail industry has been materially injured by unfairly-priced and subsidized imports from Korea, Malaysia, Oman, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Today’s vote by the ITC clears the way for the U.S. Department of Commerce to issue antidumping and countervailing duty orders covering imports of steel nails from these countries. On May 14, 2015, Commerce announced final margins up to 314 percent on unfairly traded imports from these countries. Preliminary duties have been in effect since December 2014.
“We are very pleased with the ITC’s determination,” said Fernando Villanueva, President and CEO of Mid Continent Steel & Wire. “The aggressively low pricing of imports from these countries has seriously injured our industry. The trade orders to be issued will bring badly needed discipline to the market, and should allow Mid Continent and the other members of the domestic industry to benefit from the improvements in the housing market and the economy generally. As the same time, we will continue to monitor imports and will not hesitate to defend our industry again in the future, if necessary.”
The ITC will formally report its determination to the Commerce Department no later than June 29, 2015. The antidumping and countervailing duty orders will then be published in the Federal Register in early July, implementing the final margins found by the Commerce Department. U.S. Customs and Border Protection will then require U.S. importers of subject nails from these countries to make cash deposits to cover their estimated duty liability. The final amount of duties owed, however, will not be determined until future administrative reviews are completed. This process may result in increased duties.The current cases were filed just two years after Commerce imposed antidumping duties on imports of steel nails from the United Arab Emirates, and six years after antidumping duties were imposed on imports of steel nails from China. Both antidumping orders remain in place, and in January 2014, Commerce renewed the China order for at least another five years.
The Commerce and ITC investigations cover certain steel nails up to 12 inches long that are produced from any type of steel. The steel nails covered by the investigations can have any type of finish, head, shank, point and diameter, and may be sold as loose nails or collated in any manner using any type of material.
Mid Continent Steel & Wire, founded in 1987, has over 400 employees in several locations throughout the United States. Mid Continent offers a full range of collated and bulk steel nails for construction and industrial applications.
Website: www.magnumfasteners.com