US to reduce duties on Chinese aluminium sheet products

The US Commerce Department reportedly announced on Wednesday, November 7, about levying final anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on Chinese common alloy aluminium sheet products of 96.3 per cent to 176.2 per cent.

For the first time, these duties are issued in a trade remedy case initiated by the US government since 1985. The Trump administration has pledged to take a more aggressive approach to trade enforcement by having the Commerce Department launch more anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on behalf of private industry.

"We will continue to do everything in our power under U.S. law to restrict the flow of dumped or subsidized goods into U.S. markets," said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in a statement.

However, these final aluminium sheet duties are lesser from the initial ones that were imposed in April and July of 198.4 per cent to 280.46 per cent.

The US International Trade Commission (USITC) is scheduled to make its final injury determinations on December 20 after it voted 4-0 in January to authorise the investigation. In 2017, some of the notable US aluminium industry firms like Aleris Corp, Arconic Inc, Constellium, Jupiter Aluminium Corp, JW Aluminium Company, and Novelis Corp confirmed what they termed a surge in "in low-priced, unfairly traded imports of common alloy sheet from China."

The firms said the volume of aluminium sheet product import had increased by 750 per cent over the last decade and by more than 91 per cent between 2014 and 2017. This according to them resulted in "significant market share gains by Chinese imports at the direct expense of the U.S. industry."

But this year China’s aluminium exports fell by 3.6 per cent from September to 482,000 tonnes in October, the lowest since May, customs data showed.