U.S. May Impose Duties on Chinese Steel-Grate Imports

The U.S. Commerce Department said it would impose anti-dumping duties of as much as 145 percent on Chinese steel-grating imports under a preliminary finding that companies sold the product at prices below fair value. Imports of the steel grating were valued at $90.7 million in 2008, the agency said in a statement today. Chinese shipments of grating to the U.S. jumped more than 500 percent by volume and more than 900 percent by value from 2006 to 2008, the department said. Duties ranged from 14.4 percent for four companies including Ningbo Jiulong Machinery Manufacturing Co., to 145 percent for Shanghai DAHE Grating Co. and other exporters or producers. The move backs petitions from Alabama Metal Industries Corp., based in Birmingham, Alabama, and Fisher & Ludlow, a unit of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Nucor Corp. The decision announced today is preliminary, and the Commerce Department and U.S. International Trade Commission will need to make final rulings before the tariffs are decided. While those decisions are pending, importers must deposit the preliminary duty with U.S. Customs. The Commerce Department expects to make a final determination as soon as April 17. –Courtesy of www.businessweek.com