January 18, 2023 - Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. has partnered with the United Steelworkers (USW) in filing antidumping and countervailing duty petitions against eight countries related to unfairly traded tin and chromium coated sheet steel products. The petitions seek the imposition of antidumping duties on U.S. imports of tin mill products from Canada, China, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. The petitions also seek the imposition of countervailing duties on U.S. imports of tin mill products from China.
Lourenco Goncalves, Cleveland-Cliffs' Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "The United States is still the largest importer of steel in the world, despite being the most environmentally friendly steel producing nation. As our filing shows, there has been a significant surge in unfairly priced tinplate imports flooding the United States over the past two years, and we cannot let this persist. We welcome competition with any and all imported steel as long as our U.S. trade laws are respected, and we will use all the tools at our disposal to remedy the situation.”
Tin mill products are used primarily for packaging applications, particularly for canned food, among many others. Cleveland-Cliffs produces tin mill products at its Weirton, West Virginia operating facility and sells approximately 300,000 net tons per year, approximately 2% of total Company steel sales volume. The Weirton facility employs approximately 950 people, the majority of whom are USW-represented.
The petitions present evidence that imports of tin mill products from each subject country are being sold in the United States at less than normal value and that imports of tin mill products from China are benefiting from countervailable subsidies. The petitions also show that dumped and subsidized imports from the subject countries have taken sales from the domestic industry and made it impossible to obtain a fair rate of return on domestic operations, putting the future of American made tin mill products at risk.
The eight countries covered by the antidumping petitions and their respective margins are as follows:
Country
Dumping Margins
Canada
78.29%
China
130.88%
Germany
43.64%
Netherlands
124.17% - 294.27%
South Korea
13.46% - 110.84%
Taiwan
47.22% - 60.12%
Turkey
96.51% - 106.43%
United Kingdom
110.81%
Census data indicates that, from 2019 to 2021, imports of tin mill products from the subject countries increased by 21%. Subsequently, imports from these subject countries, through November 2022, increased by an additional 21%.
