I want to thank everyone who attended our breakout session about the rising threat from imported aluminum extrusions. In that session we examined the data in this matter. There has been clear growth in imports from a variety of countries. In recent years we’ve seen higher market penetration from Vietnam and Malaysia, but now, we see the threat from the Caribbean and other Southeast Asian countries. As discussed in the meeting, the AEC’s law firm in our China case, Wiley Rein, is collecting data from AEC members in order to track these imports and the impacts on our businesses and industry. If you’d like to participate in this data collection, please contact me for details. While I can’t comment in this forum on about our next steps, let me assure you that we are acting. Imports from the Dominican Republic are particularly worrisome. The Chinese owned and operated facility in that country appear to signal a new tactic by the Chinese industry....
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.