US issues anti-dumping duties on aluminium sheet import from India, Germany, Bahrain & 15 other countries

On Tuesday, March 2, the United States Commerce Department levied final anti-dumping duties on common alloy aluminium sheet import from 18 countries, including up to 242.8 per cent on Germany and 4.83 per cent on Bahrain. The news came after the US Commerce Department announced the duties following Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo’s win as the new US Commerce Secretary in an 84-15 U.S. Senate vote.

The anti-dumping case and anti-subsidy countervailing duty case were initiated by the Trump administration in March 2020.

Germany, the largest exporter of aluminium sheet to the US, had the highest anti-dumping rate in the range of 49.4 per cent to 242.8 per cent. In 2019, Germany exported $286.6 million worth aluminium sheet to the United States.

Bahrain, the second-largest exporter with $241.2 million worth aluminium sheet exported in 2019, had 4.83 per cent anti-dumping duty and 6.44 per cent anti-subsidy duty.

On Tuesday, Commerce’s International Trade Administration issued a fact sheet showing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy rates for other countries, including Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Oman, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, and Turkey.

“There has been a revival in investment in U.S. domestic production of common alloy sheet. The key question...is whether the domestic increase in common alloy production is sufficient to offset potentially lower imports,” said Wood Mackenzie’s principal analyst Uday Patel.

He also said, “Aluminium demand is expanding rapidly in the United States at the moment and we expect the stimulus to further push demand growth for common alloy sheet over the next two years.”

According to Patel, the United States aluminium sheet imports will likely continue despite the duties. However, he expects some of the aluminium sheets will reroute to Europe and Southeast Asia as the demand there sees a strong growth to absorb the excess metal.

As per the report, the duties will come into effect on top of 10 per cent US aluminium tariffs imposed by the Trump administration under a national security law.