Final Thoughts & Last Minute HR Trade Case Announcement

The following press release came out late this afternoon and we caught it early this evening. The announcement is about the hot rolled trade cases and whether the US International Trade Commission (ITC) found enough evidence to determine that the probability exists that the U.S. steel industry was “materially damaged” by hot rolled exports from Australia, Brazil, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Our expectation has been that the ITC would find there was enough to move the trade suits forward. Here is what the ITC press release had to say:

The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) today determined that there is a reasonable indication that a U.S. industry is materially injured by reason of imports of certain hot-rolled steel flat products from Australia, Brazil, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the United Kingdom that are allegedly sold in the United States at less than fair value and allegedly subsidized by the governments of Brazil, Korea, and Turkey.