During the Aluminum Summit in September, members heard a lot about our Fair Trade case and the tasks in front of us. I wanted to use this opportunity to discuss the key issues and our path forward. From Scope Challenges to the Sunset Review, the next 12 months may be the busiest time ever for our case.
The Sunset Review process is upon us. October will feature two webinars for members this year to help you prepare for the case. One for the production and financial piece, and one for the commercial side.
While the templates we will fill out haven’t changed much, the climate in which we seek a renewal of orders has. Business is strong for extruders now. From a layman’s point of view, our industry is rock solid. Orders are strong, new equipment has been installed, and records are being set by extruders across the country. However, this environment has brought a significant increase in imports. Currently, imports have a market share of 21%. While we are busy, we may not feel the effects of this, but we all know when the downturn comes that level of penetration into our market will hurt us.
So, the story we need to tell is that our current boost is a COVID bump and imports continue to threaten and negatively impact the domestic industry. We will need to show the lengths China has gone through to avoid duties and find paths to our customers. To do this, we will need your help. So, we will discuss this with the production and finance folks in our organizations AND with the commercial leaders who can give us the field intelligence we need to show examples of how imports are taking share and forcing us to lower prices just to keep what we have. This is very important for us this year. So, for the first time ever, we will have a webinar with commercial folks letting them know what we need and how to report it to Wiley as they build our legal arguments.
On the scope side, we begin to prepare for the appeal in the Reflections case. We do know that the judge assigned to this case was appointed by Trump and has been favorable to our point of view in other cases. This is good to hear because this is going to be a tough fight.
The Administrative Review process has begun for our 10th Review. It’s hard to imagine we have been through ten of these! Our strategy has been set by the Fair-Trade Committee and we look forward to kicking this off. The 9th Administrative Review is heading towards its final determination. You may recall that in Commerce’s preliminary decision in the 9th Administrative Review earlier this year, they did find that Kingtom should be subject to our China duties. Confidence is high that this position will hold in the final determination.
I can tell you that there are two significant issues in the Trade Enforcement arena under way. Unfortunately, I cannot share details for obvious reasons. I will be reaching out to members that have helped build these cases and ask for more information if available. Since these are two new efforts, it may be several months before they move to a position where they can be discussed publicly. It was your insight and help in this that has allowed us to take the next big steps. Thank You!
During our breakout session covering trade enforcement at the Aluminum Summit in September, I demonstrated some of the tools we now have in place to track shipments and capture bill of lading information. One of the key points I wanted to make is that we have found that one of the best sources for this type of field intelligence is your customers. A lot of the cases we’ve won have come from extrusion customers that play by the rules, informing us that their competitors are not. If you supply an industry leader in each end use, they will know if others in their industry are cheating. If that is the case, we can help them, and you will look like a hero for helping them! If you hear of something like this, let me know. We’ve been quite effective in bringing these customers into the fold to help us fight circumvention.
Thank you all for your continued support. I look forward to the next few months because I think we are going to see a lot of success in all areas of our case! Just remember, if we stick together and combine our resources, we can make a big difference for the industry, your business, and your customers.
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