US increases import duties on Nippon Steel hot-rolled steel

At the same time, Nippon Steel promises American trade unions not to import slabs from foreign factories to the US

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) has raised import duties for Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel after a review. This is reported by Bloomberg.

According to a preliminary decision published in the Federal Register, DOC set a weighted average dumping margin of 29% for Nippon Steel. As noted, it was previously determined that the company sold hot-rolled flat products in the United States at prices below normal from October 2022 to September 2023.

The decision of November 13 this year was part of the annual administrative review of the dumping case, which has been ongoing since 2016, when the four largest US steel companies first filed a complaint.

The updated tariff, if confirmed by the final decision, will significantly increase duties on Nippon Steel’s hot-rolled products from the previous level of 1.39%.

The announcement comes at a time when Nippon Steel has promised the United Steelworkers not to import slabs to the US from its international mills as part of its commitment to buy US steelmaker US Steel. This was stated in a letter from Takahiro Mori, Executive Vice President of the Japanese company, to members of the American union.

Mori also confirmed job security as part of the acquisition and plans to invest about $2.7 billion to modernize US Steel’s plants in the country.

Nippon Steel plans to close the acquisition of US Steel for more than $14 billion by the end of this year, before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January 2025. Trump promised to block the deal during his campaign.

Nippon Steel increased its unconsolidated steel shipments by 1.8% y/y – to 32.03 million tonnes in fiscal 2023/2024 (ended March 31).

In the period, 44% of steel was exported by value, compared to 43% in the previous financial year. The average realized price decreased by 2.8% to ¥144.8 thousand per tonne ($1,006 per tonne), down 8.8% year-on-year.