The main reason stocks in the steel sector are on fire today is because overnight the Commerce Department escalated its trade war with China when it implemented the latest clampdown on a glut of steel imports, when it announced that corrosion-resistant steel from China will face final U. S. anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties of up to 450%. The final U. S. anti-dumping duties on the Chinese products replace preliminary ones of 256% issued in December 2015.
The department also issued anti-dumping duties of 3 percent to 92 percent on producers of corrosion-resistant steel in Italy, India, South Korea and Taiwan.
The duty hit producers of the flat-rolled steel, which is coated or plated with zinc, aluminum or other metals to extend its service life, with anti-subsidy duties in China, South Korea, Italy and India. Taiwan was exempted.
This follow last week’s 522% duty imposed by the US on cold-rolled steel imports from China used in automobiles and other manufacturing, which led to the latest angry rebuke from Beijing: “There’s too much trade friction and it’s not good for the market,” Liu Zhenjiang, secretary general of the China Iron and Steel Association told Reuters when asked if China will appeal U. S. anti-dumping duties at the World Trade Organization. “High taxes are unfair …. China doesn’t have a large market share in the United States,” Zhang Dianbo, deputy general manager at Baosteel Group, said recently during a Singapore conference.
Fast forward to today when China escalated the war of words.
This post was published at Zero Hedge on 05/26/2016.
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