US imposes duties on structural steel from China and Mexico

The US Department of Commerce said Wednesday it imposed tariffs on structural steel from China and Mexico after preliminary announcement that manufacturers in both countries were dumping structural steel into the US market at prices below fair market value.

The department said it has imposed duties of up to 141% on Chinese structural steel and up to 31% on Mexican structural steel and will begin collecting cash deposits for imports based on those rates.

The organization said it found that imports of Canadian manufactured structural steel did not violate US anti-dumping laws.

Most of China's steel products have been largely excluded from the US market by the former Commerce Department's anti-dumping duties and President Donald Trump's 25 percent punitive tariffs. The latest order aims to prevent downstream Chinese structural steel assemblies from not fulfilling these responsibilities and entering the United States.

The commerce discovered that one Chinese manufacturer, Modern Heavy Industries (Taicang) Co Ltd, did not dump products to the United States, but set dump rates of 52% for Wison (Nanton) Heavy Industry Co Ltd and 57.86% for Jinhuan Construction Group Co. The LLC has also set a provisional reset rate of 141% for all other Chinese manufacturers.

Mexico's Ministry of Economy said the duties imposed on some Mexican structural steels are part of "a normal investigation ... when the industry feels it is being influenced by imports using unfair practices such as dumping or subsidies."

The Economy Ministry said it will continue to provide support to the affected Mexican firms.