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(AMM) US aluminum extruders readying for rise in orders

September 03, 2010 - 00:00 GMT Location: New York

KEYWORDS: extruders , aluminum , China , Commerce Department , imports

U.S. aluminum extruders and their suppliers are bracing for a surge in demand in the new year as the Commerce Department appears likely to implement countervailing duties as high as 138 percent on certain aluminum extrusions from China. "That's a pretty significant leveling of the playing field," said one market source. "We could see extruders firing up presses that have been idled, bringing back shifts-it would be kind of like the recovery we never had."

Commerce's preliminary determination, announced Aug. 31, rules that Chinese producers of aluminum extrusions have been unfairly subsidized by the Chinese government, marking an upward battle for U.S. extruders striving to compete in a low-price domestic marketplace (AMM, Sept. 1). As part of the preliminary ruling, Commerce instructed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits or bonds on imported extrusions from China based on preliminary subsidy rates of between 6.18 and 137.65 percent.

The case's conclusion is still some months away, with Commerce expected to finalize by November the final duty order and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) required to conduct by December its final investigation on whether imports of Chinese extrusions injured the U.S. extrusion industry.

Nonetheless, players in the domestic extrusion industry have read the preliminary ruling as a positive sign and are already gearing up for what they expect...

All material subject to strictly enforced copyright laws. © Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC.


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