US steel producers call on Washington to scrap carbon steel plate deal with Russia

Severstal Steel Mill at Cherepovets

US  steel producers yesterday called on the country’s Department of Commerce to scrap a trade deal exempting Russian carbon steel plate manufacturers  from paying import duties. Several companies including Nucor Corp, SSAB Enterprises  and Arcelor Mittal are claiming that a sudden influx of cheap cut-to-length (CTL) carbon steel plate was hurting the local industry and said that  they suspected that Russian producers may have breached the terms of an  earlier suspension agreement that deferred   the payment of anti-dumping duties. 
 “The suspension agreement and its normal value pricing mechanism have failed to function as originally intended, and instead have facilitated Russian producers’ exports of large and increasing volumes of low-priced CTL plate to the U.S. market,” the companies said in their submission to the Department.  
Last year, US steelmakers succeeded in overturning a suspension agreement on Russian hot-rolled, flat-rolled, carbon quality steel, which had set a cap on imports and a minimum price. If this second agreement is also revoked, Russia’s Severstal will face anti-dumping duties of 53.81% while other Russian producers and exporters could face duties of up to 185%.
Last week, Nucor and SSAB Enterprises launched a separate action complaining Chinese producers were circumventing import duties on steel plate.