The Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC) has filed a petition against China Zhongwang Holdings Ltd. alleging the company has systematically and illegally evaded duties on aluminum extrusions imported into the United States.  The alleged scheme involves hundreds of millions of pounds aluminum extrusions that are simply cut and welded into aluminum slabs.  Upon entering the U.S. these extrusions are being identified as ‘pallets’ even though the testimony the Council has gathered makes it clear the sole purpose of these extrusions is to re-melt them back into billets. “In late July, the AEC released a statement to the press calling on the United States Government, as well as others identified in the Dupre Analytics report , to investigate issues of transshipment and circumvention by Zhongwang.  We have made our case to U.S. Customs regarding the transshipment allegations, and now we are filing our circumvention case with the Department of Commerce,” said Jeff Henderson, Dir...

Our trade case continues to be extremely active, especially with the big news generated from the Dupre Analytics report.  There are several issues to report that are changing with each week. Administrative Reviews The Department of Commerce (DOC) has still not published the preliminary results from the 3rd annual administrative review. As you may recall, the rates published in June were incomplete and contained a major error.  The DOC says they will come out with those rates in October, but it is looking like they may not do that, and instead, just publish their final numbers in December. The fourth administrative review has begun.  The DOC is selecting mandatory respondents now.  They rejected our request to select ZhongWang (ZW).  Their reasoning is that ZW is not the exporter of record in the trade data, so they can’t justify selecting them.  Therefore, it is likely we will see some of the same Chinese extruders we’ve seen before. Scope Issues ...

Clearly, the most interesting news to report this month is the blockbuster report uploaded to the world at http://dupreanalytics.com/reports/ .  The AEC has commented on that story in a separate piece , and through the media in recent weeks.  However, our trade case continues to move forward with the fourth administrative review now underway, scope requests being processed, and a minor (and rare) victory from the courts. The AEC is asking the Department of Commerce (DOC) to name Zhongwang China as a mandatory respondent in this year’s administrative review.  Zhongwang was named as a mandatory respondent in the original filing and never responded.  It is unlikely they will this time, even if the DOC asks.  However, getting that on the record could be helpful on other fronts in light of the Dupre report.  We continue to await the Department’s post-preliminary ruling for the third administrative review.  As reported last month, we are hopeful that we w...

For this month’s update we’ll discuss administrative reviews, update scope requests, and developments in circumvention cases.  Each one has several moving pieces, so I’ll only address the key highlights.  However, this month we have the added story of how the AEC’s lobbying efforts help form U.S. trade policy in landmark legislation that recently became law. AECmembers: read the July issue of the AEC member newsletter,  essentiALs, for more information. The fourth administrative review has just begun.  Every year at this time, the Department of Commerce (DOC) reviews import data to select top aluminum extrusions exporters from the People’s Republic of China.  From this list, they will pick two or three companies for the Anti-Dumping (AD) case, and a similar number for the Countervailing Duty (CVD) case.  Chinese extruders are also offered a chance to seek a special rate by agreeing to disclose all of their production and/or sales data.  We will know...

This month has shaped up so far to be a hectic and busy month on the AEC Fair Trade front. Three main issues have been at the forefront: the results of the Department of Commerce (DOC) announcement of its Preliminary Decision in the Third Administrative Review, the developments from Washington D.C. in the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) bill, and circumvention. Preliminary Results of Third Administrative Review The DOC announced what amounts to a ‘preliminary’ preliminary finding in our industry’s third administrative review.  The Preliminary Decision was released June 2, 2015.  Here is the breakdown of their determination thus far: Anti-Dumping (AD) rates remain at 33%.  Jangho and Yuanda, the first & second mandatory respondents, received Adverse Facts Available (AFA), which is 33%.  It was announced that the third mandatory respondent, Union, received 0%.  However, there was a glaring error in that calculation.  So, the DOC will have to go back, ...

Over the last few weeks the Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC), its members, and leadership have made their voice heard in the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) bill making its way through Congress.  Adding our voice to manufacturers all across the country from the steel, solar panel, and tire industries (just to name a few), we aim to have the pending Customs Bill amendment adding to the historic TPA legislation.  As I write this month’s entry, AEC members and leadership are phoning, faxing, and emailing their elected officials asking for their support.  Hopefully, by the time you read this update, the results will be in, and we will have impacted a huge win for our industry and domestic manufacturing. Of course, that effort is only part of the agenda being advanced by the AEC.  The Department of Commerce (DOC) issued its decisions regarding IKEA’s cabinet/drawer handles and IKEA’s towel racks. The Department found both sets of products to be in-scope merchandise....

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...