During our Annual Conference in Palm Desert last month we discussed our multi-front battle with Chinese extruders.  This included Annual Administrative Reviews, Scope Requests, Lobbying, and Circumvention.  I can tell you that 2015 will be an active year in every area. We are in the middle of this year’s Administrative Review, which is our third one since the orders took effect in 2011.  There are a couple of key issues to address for the Administrative Review. The first key issue this year is which surrogate country will be chosen to calculate production costs used to establish duties.  We have a key opportunity this year because the previous surrogate country, The Philippines, is no longer on the ‘list’.  It gives our industry an opportunity to argue for a country whose economic scale more closely resembles China.  We fought hard to replace The Philippines in previous years because it was clearly not a good surrogate given China’s economic growth in re...

At this year’s Annual Meeting, attendees were treated to a presentation from the lead attorney on our China Fair Trade Case.  In that presentation, which can be viewed here  (you will need your AEC login credentials), Robert DeFrancesco, Partner at Wiley Rein, walked us through the key issues impacting not only our industry’s case, but the greater challenges to the aluminum market.  Please review Robert’s presentation and consider how important US-China trade issues are to aluminum extruders throughout North America. These macro-political issues create challenges for our industry beyond our reach.  Only through collaborating with other industries that are under assault will we be able to influence policy-makers in the way we must in order to survive the relentless, unfair, and illegal trade actions coming out of the People’s Republic of China. With this in mind, I was able to articulate AEC’s renewed strategy in my presentation in Palm Desert.  While w...

Several news outlets reported that a settlement has been reached in the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against companies that allegedly were involved in an effort to evade duties on aluminum extrusions. The Yuma News reported that “The Department of Justice announced last week that California-based C.R. Laurence Co. Inc., Florida-based Southeastern Aluminum Products Inc. and Texas-based Waterfall Group LLC have agreed to pay $2,300,000, $650,000 and $100,000, respectively, to resolve a lawsuit brought by the United States under the False Claims Act alleging that the companies engaged in schemes to evade customs duties on imports of aluminum extrusions from the People’s Republic of China (PRC).” U.S. Glass quoted C.R. Laurence Co., Inc. president, Lloyd Talbert, “"While we deny engaging in any of the alleged wrongful conduct, we are happy to have reached this settlement agreement so that we can ensure that our resources and focus remain on best serving our customers' nee...

This year has started off with a bang!  The recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) that affirmed the Court of Internal Trade’s (CIT) determination in the curtain wall units and parts appeal was outstanding for the industry.  You can read more about that in the trade alert we sent the day the decision was announced here (http://aluminumextruderscouncil.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-court-of-appeals-for-federal.html))  Like this decision, there are a number of open issues we expect to see resolved in 2015.  The Department of Commerce (DOC) released its final determination in the second annual review in late December.  Overall, the final results were largely consistent with the Department’s preliminary results. With regard to the countervailing duty (CVD) results, by successfully persuading the Department not to use LME-based benchmarks, we were able to preserve much of the CVD margins . This is a good long-term precedent. ...

In so doing, the Court of Appeals sides with the Department of Commerce, the Court of International Trade, and the Curtain Wall Coalition. Yesterday, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) issued its decision affirming the determination by the Court of International Trade (CIT) that curtain wall units and parts fall within the scope of the tariffs on aluminum extrusions imported from China. In affirming the CIT’s decision, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) found that (1) the Curtain Wall Coalition (CWC) companies had standing to file the underlying scope request, and (2) the Department of Commerce’s (DOC) original determination that the curtain wall units and components at issue were included as in-scope merchandise was proper. Several Chinese curtain wall producers, including Yuanda USA, Shenyang Yuanda Aluminum Industry Engineering Co. Ltd., and Jangho Curtain Wall Americas Co. Ltd, appealed the CIT’s decision made last year.   At that time, th...

On December 17, 2014, the Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC) and Ducker Worldwide will co-host an AEC members-only webinar to announce the findings of Ducker’s study on the impact to our industry of the U.S. aluminum extrusions trade case against Chinese extruders.  It will come as no surprise that hundreds of millions of pounds have returned to the domestic market since the preliminary orders took effect in October 2010. What may be new is: 1) Which end use categories were hardest hit? 2) Which end use categories are vulnerable to extruders if duties should decrease? 3) What is the relationship between tariff rates on Chinese extrusions and market share penetration in the U.S. market? On these first two items, I invite you to attend the webinar.  On the third item, Ducker’s analysis charted Chinese price differentials to the U.S. market against their market share performance.  This analysis gives the industry its first look at a supply-and-demand curve to the U.S...

For months the aluminum extrusion industry has been awaiting a decision from the Department of Commerce (DOC) on the scope requests concerning 5000-series products.  In October, the DOC pushed the decision date out to November 7, 2014.  On November 7th the DOC announced its decision to launch a formal scope proceeding on the subject.  While the Department did not take the opportunity to affirmatively state that 5xxx products that have been heat treated were covered by the scope, the fact that they initiated a formal proceeding indicates that they feel it is a close call and worth further examination.  All parties will have until November 28, 2014 to submit their final comments.  The deadline for rebuttal comments is December 8, 2014. The Aluminum Extruders Council’s Fair Trade Lobbying team has spent many hours in person, and on the phone, looking for support from elected officials.  That effort has translated into numerous calls and letters to DOC Assis...