According to Mining News Pro - According to the latest reports, a U.S. steel trade association has warned that the nine nations may face doubling of tariffs on steel imports under section 232 keeping Turkey as a precedent whose duties were doubled only recently.
At risk are the countries including China, India, Malaysia, South Africa, Thailand, Vietnam, South Africa, Russia, and Costa Rica. These nations are in jeopardy because U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has singled out 12 countries (including these nine) for potential Section 232 tariffs of at least 53% in the month of Feb’18.
This list of 12 countries also included South Korea, Turkey, and Brazil. However, South Korea and Brazil have agreed to Section 232 quotas in exchange for an exemption from the duties whereas Turkey saw its Section 232 tariff double to 50% on 13 Aug’18 from earlier levels of 25%.
The key reason that has been stated by the White House to increase steel tariffs on Turkish steel was a steep decline in the value of the Turkish currency Lira. However, over past few weeks, the currency of above mentioned nine countries have also weakened against U.S. Dollars (USD) making imports from these countries into U.S. cheaper, resulting which speculations are rife that U.S. government may double the tariffs on these countries.
However, industry people allege that the Section 232 which is invoked by U.S. for the reasons of national security is being used for other purposes and political tensions between the U.S. and Turkey might also have been a factor in the doubling of duties on Turkish steel.
The move by the U.S. government to double tariffs on steel imports from Turkey has disrupted the U.S. steel trade landscape. This is because Turkey was the top supplier of reinforcing bar to the U.S. market last year, at 694,084 tonnes, according to U.S. customs data. The nation was also an important supplier of flat-rolled steel to the U.S.
Now, these nine nations that are vulnerable to doubling of tariffs accounted for 6.1 MnT of steel imports into U.S. in the year 2017 which is 17.6% of the country’s total steel imports, according to U.S. customs data. This quantity exceeds the 5.7 MnT imported steel from Canada - the top supplier of foreign steel to the U.S. last year.
Trump`s announcement of 25% tariffs on steel imports in the month of Mar’18 has made the participants of U.S.’s steel supply chain including steel traders, some domestic mills and end-users quite worried as U.S. trade policy has become too unpredictable and has increased their cost of raw material procurement significantly.
