AK Steel Applauds Commerce Department's Preliminary Countervailing Duties Determination in Cold-Rolled Steel Trade Cases

WEST CHESTER, Ohio, Dec. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) said that it applauds the U.S. Department of Commerce's preliminary determinations announced today that imports of cold-rolled steel from Brazil, China, India, and Russia are benefiting from unfair government subsidies and should be subject to countervailing duties.  As a result, the Commerce Department will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection ("CBP") to begin requiring U.S. importers of cold-rolled steel from these four countries to deposit estimated countervailing duties at the time of importation as follows:

With respect to South Korea, the Commerce Department found that countervailable government subsidies were not in excess of the de minimis level of one percent.

The Commerce Department will next make preliminary anti-dumping determinations with respect to these four countries and South Korea, along with Japan and the United Kingdom (which were not named in the countervailing duty petitions), on or about February 23, 2016.  Estimated anti-dumping duties resulting from those preliminary determinations by the Commerce Department are generally added to the estimated countervailing duties.  AK Steel and the other petitioners have alleged anti-dumping duties ranging from 42.28 percent to 320.45 percent.

AK Steel also noted that on December 16, 2015, the Commerce Department reached affirmative preliminary critical circumstances findings with respect to certain foreign producers of cold-rolled steel.  As a result of this critical circumstances determination, the Commerce Department can impose provisional countervailing duties retroactively on certain imports of cold-rolled steel from China beginning from 90 days prior to its publication of the preliminary determination in the Federal Register.

The Commerce Department's determinations follow the July 28, 2015 filing of anti-dumping and countervailing duty petitions by AK Steel and other domestic cold-rolled steel producers.

"AK Steel is pleased that the Commerce Department has made a preliminary ruling that certain imports of cold-rolled steel are being unfairly subsidized," said James L. Wainscott, Chairman, President and CEO of AK Steel.  "The domestic steel industry continues to suffer devastating injury caused by dumped and subsidized imports.  Today's preliminary ruling is yet another important step in stopping the flood of these unfairly traded imports."

The next step in the trade action will be the Commerce Department's verification of factual information submitted by the foreign producers and their governments.  There will then be an opportunity for parties to submit case and rebuttal briefs to the Commerce Department and to participate in a hearing.  Following these events, the Commerce Department will issue its final determinations. 

Cold-rolled steel is hot-rolled steel that has been hardened through the cold-rolling process and that may or may not undergo further processing including annealing, hardening / tempering, and temper rolling.  While a substantial portion of cold-rolled steel production is used "as is," a majority in the United States is further processed by galvanizing or coating.  Cold-rolled steel is primarily used in appliances, automotive products, containers, and construction.

AK Steel AK Steel is a world leader in the production of flat-rolled carbon, stainless and electrical steel products, primarily for automotive, infrastructure and manufacturing, construction and electrical power generation and distribution markets.  Headquartered in West Chester, Ohio (Greater Cincinnati), the company employs approximately 8,000 men and women at eight steel plants, two coke plants and two tube manufacturing plants across six states: Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.  Additional information about AK Steel is available at www.aksteel.com.

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SOURCE AK Steel