US Commerce Dept raises import tariff for Nippon Steel after review

By Joe Deaux

 

The US Commerce Department has ratcheted up tariffs on Nippon Steel Corp. just as the Japanese steelmaker made an anti-import promise to gain support for its $14.1 billion takeover of United States Steel Corp.

 

The Commerce Department imposed a dumping margin of 29 per cent on Nippon Steel for selling hot-rolled steel in the US at prices below normal value from October 2022 through September 2023, according to a preliminary ruling published to the Federal Register. The Nov. 13 decision was part of the department’s annual administrative review of a dumping case that has existed since 2016, when the four major US steelmakers first filed the complaint. 

 

 

The revelation comes the same day that Nippon Steel promised unionized US Steel workers that it won’t ship steel slabs from its overseas mills as part of commitments for its proposed purchase of the iconic American company. While the promise involves a different product, the timing of the Commerce Department decision could be used as a political bludgeon by United Steelworkers President David McCall and others against foreign ownership. Both steel companies are awaiting a decision on the deal from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, or CFIUS.

 

The updated tariff, if confirmed in a final determination, is significant since it would raise duties on Nippon Steel’s hot-rolled steel products from a prior level of 1.39 per cent. The price of hot-rolled coil is the global benchmark for the steel industry and is the most widely produced version of the alloy. It’s found in everything from automobiles and appliances to bridges.

 

“In general, the Japanese have not been known to be bad actors,” said Timna Tanners, an analyst at Wolfe Research. “Japan is a high-cost producer, they’re known for value-add, high-margin products such as electrical steel and I can’t believe they’d be a significant player in more commodity-grade products like hot-rolled coil or slab.”

 

The actual volume of illegally dumped steel wasn’t disclosed in the report. Domestic steel prices fell 9.3 per cent during the period reviewed by Commerce. Prices of steel typically differ by region, unlike aluminum and copper that have a globally traded price.

 

“Nippon Steel has always respected the US legal regime in assessing and remedying the impact of imports on the US domestic industry,” the Japanese steelmaker said in an emailed statement. “Nippon Steel will continue its practice of fully complying with US trade remedy laws.”

 

Commerce’s timing is unlikely tied to the CFIUS decision since this was part of a so-called administrative review of an existing dumping case, and they happen annually. The two previous reviews of the case were published around the same time each of the last two years. 

 

Commerce’s ratcheted-up tariffs on the foreign steelmaker come as President-Elect Donald Trump prepares for a second term, during which he has promised large duties on China and smaller ones on the rest of the world.

 

Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., Nucor Corp., Steel Dynamics Inc. and US Steel are petitioners on the case, along with the US subsidiary of Swedish producer SSAB AB. McCall, who has been critical of the US Steel takeover, has criticized Nippon Steel and Japan of illegal steel dumping into the US market for years.