The fair-trade efforts of the United States aluminum extrusion industry have certainly changed in 2023.  A year ago today, AEC members were evaluating their best strategy to address illegal and unfairly imported extrusions.  Having exhausted every effort through legislation, agency work, defense of our China orders, and so much more, aluminum extruders came together to form the Aluminum Extruders Coalition.  This group of heroic extruders took the bold step to form and file a trade case .  That case was filed against 15 countries.  In all cases an antidumping case was filed, and in four of those cases there was also a countervailing subsidy case filed.  That filing has shocked the world. As the trade case moved from concept and planning to launching and filing, a lot of work was being done to be as inclusive in this process as possible.  The more voices the Coalition had the more input available to make our case.  Furthermore, these filings ...

Well, in case you missed it, a group of Aluminum Extruders Council members filed a historic AD/CVD case against 15 countries.  All 15 countries will be sued for dumping (AD), and four will be sued for subsidies (CVD).  In a press release issued earlier this week, which you can read here , the countries were identified as well as the projected duties the coalition seeks.  Anyone within the four walls of the Aluminum Extruders Council knew this was coming.  It has been discussed for four years.  To address rising imports, we battled in the enforcement arena, we went hard after products under assault in scope challenges and worked hard on the 232.  After exhausting every available option, and never seeing a dent in the import stats, we were faced with this hard decision.  That is where we are today.  The Hearing will be held later this month, and decisions will start to be rendered in the weeks that follow.  Communications about the details of ...

 The U.S. extrusion industry is analyzing trade data to determine the best strategy to address the rising imports we’ve seen over the last four years.  This deep analysis has not stopped us from pursuing trade remedies within our existing orders against China.  So, over the last month we have seen activity in the China case in trade enforcement.  We currently have two EAPA allegations that are active.  One is in the fencing industry, the other is in automotive applications.  The first has significant volume implications, while the second is a key precedent regarding Chinese extrusions being sent to Mexico for fabrication prior to export to the U.S.  Each case is proceeding and when we can comment publicly about it, we will. Meanwhile, reports began to surface out of D.C. last week of movement in the 232 program.  As I write this entry, I am still not clear if this is a legislative effort intended to redefine the nature of how 232 Orders can be lau...

  The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) is undertaking a new factfinding investigation that will assess the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity of steel and aluminum produced in the United States.  As part of its investigation, the Commission will conduct a survey by issuing questionnaires to firms with facilities producing steel and aluminum in the United States, whether U.S. or foreign owned, to collect data on their production of these goods and associated GHG emissions. This survey will be mailed to all extruders in the United States.  The announcement made by the ITC on July 6, 2023, can be accessed here.  As requested, the USITC, an independent, nonpartisan federal agency, will prepare a public report.  The report will provide, to the extent practicable: GHG emissions intensity estimates of steel and aluminum produced in the United States by product category and production stage in 2022, with data on Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions defined as: S...

As we work on a new trade case, government affairs issues have taken center stage in recent weeks. AEC members have been working with their local elected officials and their staff over the last few weeks. In this effort we have applied pressure on these lawmakers to help us find resolutions in the Aluminum 232 General Approved Exclusions (GAEs), the surge in imports from Mexico (USMCA and 232), and the overall state of our industry as a result of these failed government policies. Since that time, Bonnell Aluminum hosted a visit to their Utah plant for Senator Mitt Romney. Western Extrusions has leaned on their representative to set up a meeting with key officials this month in Washington, D.C. to discuss our trade concerns with House Ways and Means committee staff. Taber Extrusions has initiated a Senate letter by their Arkansas Senator, Tom Cotton. Working with members, our lobbyists are circulating the letter for bipartisan support to ‘close the deal' on the Commerce Department...

 With all the focus in recent months on a proposed new trade case, it is easy to forget that we have a trade case against China.  So, I wanted to update you this month on the latest matters. Perhaps the most significant ruling was in the CCM Solar Mounting case.  We’ve recently reported this as a win in the appeals court, and it is.  The update is that the petitioners attempted to appeal this decision and it was thrown out by the appellant court in very harsh terms.  I‘m excited about this ruling because the decision being appealed contained language that confirmed that sub-assemblies are not final-finished products.  This is so important due to the number of cases we lost in the past on these grounds.  After a victory like this, it opens the door for us to look at previous losses on these grounds.  If we find such a decision, we could appeal it based on the latest court ruling.  A member might say, “So what, Jeff?  I don’t extrude solar...

For all the recent focus U.S. extruders have had on a new trade case, we need to remember we still have an active trade case against China.  In that case, the AEC won a big victory at the Federal Circuit court last month in our solar mounting case. The Federal Circuit upheld the Department of Commerce’s (DOC’s) scope ruling finding that CCM’s solar panel mounts are covered by the scope of the orders and cannot be excluded as “finished merchandise.”  As you may recall, we actively opposed CCM’s scope exclusion request at Commerce and filed substantive briefs throughout this appeal to assist the Government in defending the agency’s decision.  The Federal Circuit agreed that the solar panel mounts are parts or subassemblies for a downstream product – the solar panel mounting system – and thus are not a finished product that qualifies for exclusion.  The Federal Circuit’s opinion makes clear that parts or subassemblies cannot qualify for the “finished merchandise” exclus...

 You do not have to tell U.S. extruders what it feels like to be under a deluge of imports.  The industry went through this 14 years ago with China.  Now, it is happening again.  This has been a slow buildup starting back in 2018-2019.  After the Aluminum 232 began, we did see a dip in imported extrusions.  However, by mid-2018 the protection began to fade.  Just prior to the chaos brought upon us by the COVID pandemic, the U.S. government inexplicably dropped the extrusion tariffs and the flood gates started opening.  Since late 2020 we have seen the domestic market percentage of the U.S. market collapse to a level we have not experienced since 2010 – the last year before the China tariffs took full effect. We made every effort to thwart this trend.  When we identified imports as eligible to be covered by our orders, we made a scope challenge.  When we identified imports as transshipment or circumvention, we made an  Enforce and Pr...

 Over the last few weeks, the U.S. aluminum extrusion members in the AEC have been providing data to our legal team at Wiley Law.  Wiley has pulled the numbers together, and we are ready to update the members involved in the process.  To no one’s surprise, our industry continues to suffer escalating injury due to imports.  Now, having data through the third quarter of 2022, our next task will be to collect the fourth quarter’s data, too.  Everyone expects that data to validate a continuing deterioration in the domestic injury’s share of U.S. demand.  So, what is next?  The AEC will host a webinar on January 27th at 11 AM Central Time.  This meeting is for U.S. AEC Extruder Members only , and they can register for the event here .  In parallel to our efforts investigating a possible new trade case, we have been in ongoing discussions with the Department of Commerce (DOC) seeking the reinstatement of the Aluminum 232 extrusion tariffs.  At...