News On Penalties On Aluminum Foil And Aluminum Sheet

As Politico reported, members of the Aluminum Association have filed a petition asking for protection against 18 countries that, together, export approximately $1.9 billion in common alloy sheet to the United States. The petition came 13 months after the industry won anti-dumping and countervailing duties on imports of common alloy aluminum sheet from China.

The Aluminum Association said the penalties on China resulted in producers in that country shifting exports to other foreign markets, resulting in a 114 percent increase in shipments from the 18 countries outlined in the petition. (Click here to read the petition.) The association asked for anti-dumping duties ranging from 15.9 percent to 151 percent on all 18 countries and additional countervailing duties on four of the foreign suppliers—Bahrain, Brazil, India, and Turkey.

In related news, the U.S. Court of International Trade upheld a slight reduction, from 48.64 percent to 48.3 percent, in antidumping duties on some shipments of aluminum foil from China.

Both of these developments come as the glut of metals from China continues to build. Last week The Wall Street Journal reported, “The world was already awash in excess steel and aluminum. The new coronavirus epidemic is deepening the pool. China is the world’s top producer and consumer of steel and aluminum. With factories closed and the movement of people and freight restricted to slow the spread of the new coronavirus, China’s demand for those metals has plummeted. But many of the country’s steel mills and aluminum smelters have continued to operate because stopping and starting equipment handling molten metal is expensive and risky. Millions of tons of steel and aluminum produced during what is now the worst manufacturing slump on record in China have created a surplus of metal that will take months to shrink, even if the epidemic is contained and demand recovers later this year in China and beyond.”