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 Protect Act (EAPA) claim. We petitioned the Department
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.