Tag Archives: U.S. Steel

There are risks involved in halting sale of U.S. Steel to Japanese company

U.S.-Steels-Edgar-Thompson-Works-in-Braddock-PA

Important Takeaways:

  • White House officials are signaling that President Joe Biden will not imminently move to block Nippon Steel’s bid to acquire U.S. Steel amid mounting concerns over the political and economic consequences of nixing the deal, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.
  • The White House last week had been preparing to announce that the president would formally block the Japanese company’s proposed $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel on national security grounds.
  • White House officials have now indicated that such a decision is unlikely in the short term and may not be made until after the 2024 presidential election
  • White House spokeswoman Saloni Sharma disputed that there had been a change of plans, saying an announcement was never imminent and that the president remains committed to waiting for a recommendation from an interagency review board, as the law requires.
  • The delay of any announcement, however, comes as investors, Pennsylvania Democrats and some members of the steelworkers’ union warned that the deal’s collapse could spark an economic calamity for Pennsylvania’s beleaguered steel belt.
  • The United Steelworkers union, which endorsed Biden for reelection and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in her presidential bid, has opposed the transaction from the outset.
  • The proposed corporate acquisition has assumed outsize importance given its potential political impact on the 2024 election.
  • Without Nippon Steel’s cash, U.S. Steel has warned that it might close some of its aging facilities in the Mon Valley.

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EU upsets China with new steel price investigation

A worker verifies a product at a steel factory in Dalian, Liaoning province, China

By Philip Blenkinsop

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union has launched a new investigation into whether Chinese manufacturers are selling steel into Europe at unfairly low prices, angering China which says Europe’s steel problems are due to the region’s own economic weakness.

The European Commission has determined that a complaint brought by EU steel makers’ association Eurofer regarding certain corrosion resistant steel merits an investigation, the EU’s official journal said on Friday.

The Commission also said it would start another anti-dumping investigation into certain cast iron products from China and India as well as determining whether existing duties on Chinese steel seamless pipes and tubes should continue for another five years.

The EU has already imposed duties on a wide range of steel grades to counter what EU steel producers say is a flood of steel sold at a loss due to Chinese overcapacity and partly the cause of 5,000 British job losses.

A China Commerce Ministry official said Beijing attached a “high degree of attention and concern” to the case and that Europe’s steel problems were due to its own weak economic growth.

Wang Hejun, the head of the trade remedies investigation department, said in a statement on the ministry’s website that Europe should rationally analyze its steel industry’s problems.

“It should not adopt mistaken trade protectionist measures that limit fair market competition,” he said.

The EU investigation begins just days before the 15th anniversary of China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, when the country says new trade defense rules are supposed to kick in.

Until now, the EU has been able to compare Chinese prices with those of another country – in the current case Canadian prices. But, Beijing insists this should no longer be possible from Dec. 11.

If the United States, European Union, and other WTO members begin to take Chinese prices as fair market value, it will be much harder for them to challenge China’s cheap exports.

The European Commission proposed last month a new way of treating China, but its proposals still await approval from the EU’s 28 members and the European Parliament.

Aegis Europe, a group of European industry federations including Eurofer, said there was no legal requirement to change the way the EU treated China on Dec. 11 and that EU’s partners the United States and Japan would not be doing so.

G20 governments recognized in September that steel overcapacity was a serious problem. China, the source of 50 percent of the world’s steel and the largest steel consumer, has said the problem is a global one.

The EU currently has 40 anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures in place, 18 of which are on products from China. Twenty more investigations related to steel are still ongoing, including three for which provisional duties are in place.

(Reporting By Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels, Yawen Chen and Nicholas Heath in Beijing,; Editing by Greg Mahlich and Jane Merriman)

U.S. locks in duties on certain Indian steel pipes US-USA-STEEL-INDIA

Workers push a cart laden with steel pipes in Mumbai

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. International Trade Commission on Tuesday voted to lock in duties on imports of welded stainless pressure pipe from India as it affirmed the goods were harming the U.S. industry.

The action finalizes provisional duties of up to 13.3 percent set by the Commerce Department after it found India was dumping the pipe in the United States at below market value and unfairly subsidizing the products. The pipe is used to transport fluids at high temperatures and pressures in the petrochemical, oil and gas and other industries.

The decision was in response to a complaint brought last year by Bristol Metals, a subsidiary of U.S. steel products maker Synalloy Corp Outokumpu Stainless Pipe, a subsidiary of Finland’s Outokumpu Felker Brothers Corp; and Marcegaglia USA.

In 2015, imports of the products from India were valued at an estimated $33.1 million, according to the Commerce Department.

(Reporting by Eric Walsh)