It has certainly been an interesting summer for our trade orders. We have had several very favorable decisions in our case. In fact, one might say we ‘ran the table’. Here is a summary of those decisions. At the end of June, the Department of Commerce (DOC) issued its preliminary decision in their Fifth Administrative Review of the duties being applied in our case. In that decision the DOC established a new tariff level of 86% on the antidumping (AD) side, and 20% in the countervailing duty (CVD) case for a combined tariff of 106%. This is nearly double what was calculated last year. This is especially impactful in circumstances where kits are being imported. Because the extrusions are the only item taxed in a kit, or say, a curtain wall unit, the other elements of the kit may be subsidized by the Chinese enough to offset the extrusion tariff on the extrusions. We have every confidence that the DOC will stick with these numbers when the...
The Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC) has led the U.S. aluminum extrusion industry in achieving level competition by winning tariff protection that offsets unfair trade practices of extruders/importers of aluminum profiles produced in China. Our efforts have been of enormous value to domestic extruders and suppliers. Conservatively, an estimated 800 million pounds per year of extrusions are being produced in the U. S. that would have otherwise been lost to China.