US drops duties on Turkish steel rebar

LONDON - Reuters

The US authorities have dropped duties on steel rebars imported from Turkey, in a move described as ‘shocking’ by American producers.

The U.S. Commerce Department has dropped a preliminary decision to impose anti-dumping duties on steel rebar imports from Turkey in a ruling U.S. rebar producers described as “shocking” because they believed they had a strong case.

At the same time, the Commerce Department confirmed duties on Mexican material of up to 66.7 percent, a move at least one Mexican producer said would severely hurt that country’s rebar industry.

The ruling on Turkey reverses a preliminary decision in April that would have imposed duties of up to 2.6 percent on the country’s imports of rebar, which is used to reinforce concrete.

“We are shocked that the Commerce Department failed to find dumping against Turkish rebar companies,” the Rebar Trade Action Coalition, a group comprised of five U.S.-based producers, said in an emailed statement.

The group sued last year accusing the two countries of selling rebar at unfairly low prices, essentially undercutting U.S. prices to grab sales and market share.

“We also were surprised that the subsidy findings on Turkish producers were not found to be at higher levels,” the group said.