US imposes tariff of up to 301% on steel products from China

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The United States is imposing a new tariff of up to 301.64% on steel products from China.

The U.S. Department of Commerce gave preliminary approval for anti-dumping duties on imports of collated steel staples from China, which are intended to offset imports priced below the cost of production or the going prices in the exporting foreign company's home market. The United States imported an estimated $88.8 million in collated steel staples from China in 2018.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is now collecting cash deposits on imports of the collated steel staples from China, which were determined to be dumped at less than fair market value in the United States. The U.S. Department of Commerce will make a final ruling on the case on or around May 19 and the U.S. International Trade Commission will then issue a final injury determination on or about July 2 to declare whether U.S. manufacturers were adversely impacted and the tariff is warranted.

"If Commerce makes an affirmative final determination of dumping, and the International Trade Commission makes an affirmative final injury determination, Commerce will issue an antidumping order," the U.S. Department of Commerce said in a press release. "If Commerce makes a negative final determination of dumping, or the International Trade Commission makes a negative final determination of injury, the investigation will be terminated and no order will be issued."

In addition to the blanket 25% tariffs on most steel imports the administration put in place last year, U.S. Department of Commerce now imposes 511 tariffs on individual imported products that were determined during a judicial process to be dumped below fair value in violation of international trade law or subsidized with grants, loans, equity infusions, tax breaks, or production inputs that U.S. manufacturers do not receive.

More than 200 of those tariffs are imposed on steel products at a time when there's a glut of state-sponsored steelmaking overcapacity of hundreds of millions of tons worldwide.

International steel production has more than doubled from 936 million tons in 2000 to more than 1.97 billion tons in 2018, according to the World Steel Association. That's largely the result of Chinese steel output skyrocketing seven-fold from about 142 million tons in 2000 to nearly 1 billion tons last year, which single-handedly accounted for more than half the world's production, a historically unprecedented ramp-up that steel trade associations around the world have decried.