AK Steel Wins Trade Cases on Non-Oriented Electrical Steel

WEST CHESTER, Ohio, Nov. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) said today the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) reached an affirmative (4-1) final determination that the domestic industry producing non-oriented electrical steel (NOES) is materially injured by reason of dumped and subsidized imports from six countries.  The final injury determination means that antidumping orders will be imposed against imports from all six countries and countervailing duty orders will be imposed against imports from China and Taiwan.

AK Steel Corporation filed petitions on September 30, 2013, charging that unfairly traded imports of NOES from China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Sweden, and Taiwan were causing material injury to the domestic injury.  On October 7, 2014, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced its final affirmative determinations that imports of NOES were dumped from all six countries and that imports from China and Taiwan were also subsidized. 

As a result of the ITC's final affirmative determination, the Commerce Department will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection ("CBP") to continue to require U.S. importers of NOES from these six countries to deposit estimated antidumping duties at the time of importation, as follows:

In addition, the Commerce Department will instruct CBP to continue to require U.S. importers of NOES from China and Taiwan to deposit estimated countervailing duties at the time of importation of 158.88 percent for China and 8.80 to 17.12 percent for Taiwan. 

James L. Wainscott, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of AK Steel stated, "We are very pleased that the ITC has made this favorable determination.  We expect all of our competitors to operate according to the rules of fair trade.  Now that importers must pay duties to offset the unfair prices and distortive subsidies found by the Commerce Department, our NOES operations will have an opportunity to compete on a level playing field for the first time in many years."

NOES is an alloy steel that contains by weight more than 1.0 percent but less than 3.5 percent of silicon and not more than 0.08 percent of carbon or 1.5 percent of aluminum.  NOES has a surface oxide coating, to which an insulation coating may be applied.  The petitions cover NOES whether or not in coils, regardless of width, and having a thickness of 0.20 mm or more.  NOES is manufactured using a specialized rolling and annealing process.  It has a core loss that is substantially equal in any direction of magnetization in the plane of the material.  Based on these unique product characteristics, NOES is used primarily in the production of motors and generators.   

AK Steel was represented in these actions by Joe Dorn and Steve Jones of the law firm King & Spalding LLP.

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.  The company's AK Tube LLC subsidiary produces carbon and stainless electric resistance welded tubular steel products for truck, automotive and other 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.  The company also has interests in iron ore through its Magnetation LLC joint venture and in metallurgical coal through its AK Coal Resources, Inc. subsidiary.  Additional information about AK Steel is available at www.aksteel.com.

SOURCE AK Steel

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