US sets final food can steel dumping duties on China, Canada, Germany, Korea

WASHINGTON — The US Commerce Department said on Friday it found that imports of tin mill products from Canada, China, Germany, and South Korea are being dumped onto the US market and imports of tin mill products from China are also being subsidized.

The department also found that imports of tin mill products — a shiny silver metal widely used in cans for food, paint, aerosol products and other containers — from the Netherlands, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United Kingdom are not being dumped, it said in a statement.

The final duties are largely in line with the Commerce Department’s preliminary anti-dumping duties on the tin-plated steel imports from Canada, Germany and China imposed in August. With the exception of China, they are far lower than the double-digit and triple-digit duties initially sought by US steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs and the United Steelworkers union in their petition for a Commerce investigation filed a year ago.

The department said on Friday that the highest final anti-dumping duties of 122.5% will be imposed on tin mill steel imported from China. It also imposed countervailing anti-subsidy duties of 650% on tin mill products from top China producer Baoshan Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. and 331.9% on all other Chinese steelmakers.

Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Rasselstein and other German producers were slapped with final antidumping duties of 6.88%, while Canada’s ArcelorMittal Dofasco and other Canadian producers were hit with final anti-dumping duties of 5.27%

Commerce imposed a final anti-dumping duty rate of 2.69% against South Korea’s KG Dongbu Steel after initially receiving no anti-dumping duties.

Canada said it was disappointed with the finding.

“These duties not only weaken supply chains between Canada and the United States, but also worsen the impacts of inflation on both sides of the border,” Canada’s trade minister, Mary Ng, said in a statement. “Canada will continue to defend the interests of the Canadian steel industry and its workers.”

The Commerce Department upheld its earlier findings that tin-plate steel from the Netherlands, Taiwan, Turkey and Britain were not dumped. The US produces less than half of the tin mill steel it consumes, making the packaging industry reliant on imported steel.

“These findings demonstrate that Commerce took a careful and nuanced approach based on the particular circumstances presented by each company and the governing provisions of US law,” the department said in a statement.

For the duties to remain in place, the US International Trade Commission must determine that American producers have sustained material injury due to the dumping findings. That vote is expected in the coming weeks. —