US Department of Commerce on Friday announced affirmative preliminary opinions as part of an anti-dumping duty (AD) investigation on CAAS imports from Bahrain, Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Oman, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan and Turkey. This follows recent tentative definitions of positive countervailing duties (CVDs) on CAAS imports from Bahrain, Brazil, India and Turkey.
“The Aluminum Sheet Supply Department investigation represents the widest US enforcement action in two decades,” said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. "We look forward to commenting from the parties on preliminary findings that imported aluminum sheets from 18 countries were sold below normal prices and in some cases were unfairly subsidized to the US market."
As a result of the investigation, it was preliminary determined that exporters were exporting aluminum sheet from a conventional alloy to the United States at the following rates:
- 4.21 percent for Bahrain
- From 49.48% to 136.78% for Brazil
- 3.22 percent for Croatia
- 10.42 percent for Egypt
- From 51.18 percent to 352.71 percent for Germany
- 2.72 percent for Greece
- 0 percent to 47.92 percent for India
- 32.12 percent for Indonesia
- From 0.00% to 29.13% for Italy
- 3.53 percent for Oman
- From 12.51 percent to 83.94 percent for Romania
- From 11.24 percent to 25.84 percent for Serbia
- 4.80 percent for Slovenia
- 8.98 percent for South Africa
- 5.04 percent for South Korea
- From 3.75 percent to 23.32 percent for Spain
- 18.02 percent for Taiwan
- From 12.71 percent to 12.90 percent for Turkey
As a result of these decisions, the US Department of Commerce will issue an order to the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to collect cash deposits from importers of aluminum sheet from common alloy from the above countries based on the preliminary rates indicated above.
The Applicants are the Association of American Aluminum Producers' Trade Enforcement Working Group on Conventional Aluminum Sheets and its individual members, Aleris Rolled Products, Inc. (Richmond, VA), Arconic, Inc. (Pittsburgh, PA), Constellium Rolled Products Ravenswood, LLC (Ravenswood, USA). WV), JW Aluminum Company (Williamsport, PA), Novelis Corporation (Atlanta, GA) and Texarkana Aluminum, Inc. (Texarkana, Texas).
The Commerce Department plans to announce its final decisions on these cases around February 22, 2021.
If the final decisions are affirmative, the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) will have to make a final decision on the damage around April 5, 2021.
