JSW Steel Filed Lawsuit Against 'Metal Conspiracy' by Steelmakers

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): JSW Steel Ltd. filed a lawsuit in Houston federal court, blaming three U.S. steelmakers of metal conspiracy, which it claims to have caused direct harm to the company.

According to the company, U.S. Steel Corp., Nucor Corp. and Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., refused to sell raw metal to its pipe and plate-making operations in the U.S., following the imposition of import controls over cheaper dumped goods. The conspiracy among these companies was aimed at restraining competition. Incidentally, these three companies together control over 80% of the total steelmaking capacity in the entire country, the press release said.

ALSO READ:

JSW Steel Announced Amalgamation of Large Project Divisions

JSW Steel Eyes Earnings Boost, Driven by Capacity Expansion

The move by the steelmakers cut the domestic supply of semi-finished steel slab, as supplies from overseas markets were impacted due to tariffs. The refusal by the American companies to supply material to the company raised its costs multi-fold. The refusal also resulted in exceedingly high steel prices for domestic buyers, the company noted.

JSW Steel had tried hard for tariff exclusion to slabs. However, at that time, the above three steelmakers had assured JSW Steel that they will supply all the slabs it needed. In fact, Nucor had even objected to JSW’s exclusion request. However, they failed to keep their word and slabs were not supplied even once.