The US Department of Commerce will be pursuing a Section 232 action employing a remedy that will cover imported laminations and cores of grain-oriented electrical steel (Goes) following a complaint filed by Cleveland-Cliffs in May.
The steelmaker welcomes this action in a press release, as it may preserve 1,400 jobs at AK Steel’s operations in Butler, Pennsylvania, and in Zanesville, Ohio.
AK Steel, fully owned by Cliffs, is the only producer of Goes in the US and North America, with the capacity to produce as much as 250,000nt (226,796mt) of yearly electrical steel from its Butler and Zanesville plants.
Commerce will also take steps to focus on the newly settled Section 232 product exclusions on over 40,000nt of Goes of a certain width from South Korea. The US requires no more than 1,400nt of the material in this particular width.
Laminations and cores have been imported to the US at elevated levels since steel Section 232 tariffs were levied in 2018 as some foreign and domestic businesses tried to sidestep the tariffs.
The administration’s actions, timeframe, or further specifics have not yet been conveyed.
Goes is consumed in the production of electric transformers providing power grid and equipment needed by the US military.