U.S. Steel Raises Voice Against Illegal Dumping - Analyst Blog

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United States Steel Corp.'s X President and CEO Mario Longhi has joined forces with fellow steel industry executives and United Steelworkers' international president in pressing Congress to stop unfair trade practices and enforce America's trade laws so as to maintain the country's economic and national security.

U.S. Steel which employees more than 24,000 people domestically, is the leading producer of integrated steel, value-added steel sheet and tubular products for the automotive, appliance, container, industrial machinery, construction, and oil and gas industries.

The prime cause of concern against which U.S. Steel raised its voice is that the alarmingly increasing and intense inflow of imported OCTG (Oil Country Tubular Goods) products into the U.S. market are unfavorably affecting the company's domestic position in the tubular market.

OCTG products which play a pivotal role in building and maintaining the country's energy infrastructure are being illegally dumped by South Korea at unfairly low prices in the domestic market which happens to be the most open and attractive market in the world.

Longhi fears about the dire consequences which lie in store for the American steel industry arising from threatened jobs of thousands of middle class American workers, infrastructure and national security if immediate action is not taken against illegal dumping of OCTG products by South Korea.

U.S. Steel and others had already filed a trade case against illegal dumping of OCTG products with the U.S. Department of Commerce, whose meaningful investigative work is still underway. Longhi reiterated to the Washington official the urgent need to come up with swift action, enforce rules and punish the rule breakers so as to level the platform as promised by the trade laws.

Another steel company, AK Steel Holding Corporation AKS, also submitted antidumping duty petitions with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission ITC related to unfairly low-priced imports of non-oriented electrical steel (NOES) from six countries in Sep 2013. The low-price imports from countries including China, Germany, Japan, Korea, Sweden and Taiwan are allegedly causing material injury to the company.

AK Steel has also filed countervailing duty petitions against NOES producers in China, Korea and Taiwan asserting that they are heavily subsidized by their respective governments.

The petitions alleged that AK Steel's NOES operations and its workforce had been negatively impacted owing to increased imports of NOES from the 6 targeted countries that accounted for 92% of U.S. imports of NOES from all countries in 2012.

U.S. Steel currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Other players in the steel and related industries worth considering are Worthington Industries, Inc. WOR and NN Inc. NNBR. Both carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).



AK STEEL HLDG AKS: Free Stock Analysis Report

NN INC NNBR: Free Stock Analysis Report

WORTHINGTON IND WOR: Free Stock Analysis Report

UTD STATES STL X: Free Stock Analysis Report

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