The US Department of Commerce (Commerce) made a preliminary determination that rebar produced by Deacero in Mexico and exported to the US is circumventing (CV) the antidumping duty (AD) order on rebar from Mexico.
On September 15, 2014 Commerce published an AD order on rebar from Mexico. Deacero then received a 20.58pc weighted-average dumping margin. Grupo Acerero and Grupo Simec received a higher AD margin at 66.70pc. In late 2019, the Rebar Trade Action Coalition petitioned the review based on circumvention due to a superficial hook or bend that is easily removable and has no design or commercial value. However, fabricated rebar for specific engineering purposes is excluded from this order.
The latest preliminary determination by Commerce only covers Deacero as the investigator found no evidence on record of other Mexican producers and exporters of hooked rebar circumventing the AD orders. Deacero’s shipments of rebar that is bent on both ends and otherwise meeting the description were the subject of Commerce’s current CV determination.
Under the harmonized tariff schedule for US (HTSUS) items listed in the order, US imported around 1.12 mn mt rebar, encompassing the order, in 2018 and 1.04mn mt in 2019, down 6.9pc. Of the total shipments, Mexico exported 93,601mt in 2018 and 128,121mt in 2019, up 36.9pc. In January 2020, the US imported 18,342mt from Mexico compared to 3,981mt in January 2019, up almost four-fold.