On August 10, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced a preliminary ruling that ordinary alloy aluminum plates imported from Bahrain, Brazil, India, and Turkey benefited from unfair government subsidies. Therefore, the U.S. Department of Commerce will instruct the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. importers are required to pay estimated countervailing duties when importing certain common alloy aluminum plates from these 4 countries.

Tom Dobbins, Chairman and CEO of Alcoa, said, “Alcoa and its members are satisfied with the preliminary findings of the U.S. Department of Commerce, which will help provide a level playing field for U.S. sheet producers, especially In this challenging period. American common alloy aluminum plate producers are one of the most competitive in the world, but they should not compete with products that are unfairly subsidized by foreign governments.”

Before the U.S. Department of Commerce made the above decision, the U.S. Department of Commerce initiated anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations on imports of ordinary alloy aluminum sheets from 18 countries on March 30, 2020, and on products imported from Bahrain, Brazil, India, and Turkey.

Based on the information collected so far, the U.S. Department of Commerce has calculated the preliminary subsidy rates as follows: Bahrain: 9.49%; Brazil: 0.76% to 1.32%; India: 4.55% to 34.84%; Turkey: 0.07% to 3.15%

The next step in this trade action will be the US Department of Commerce’s preliminary anti-dumping ruling, which is scheduled to be announced on October 7, 2020 (Wednesday). If the U.S. Department of Commerce makes a positive preliminary anti-dumping ruling, U.S. importers will be required to pay deposits or deposits based on the initial dumping margin for all imports of ordinary alloy aluminum plates from 18 countries under investigation. In addition, U.S. importers will also be required to deposit estimated import duties before the preliminary subsidy decision by the Ministry of Commerce is announced.

Common alloy aluminum plates investigated by the US Department of Commerce are made of 1XXX, 3XXX or 5XXX series alloys, with a thickness equal to or less than 6.3 mm but greater than 0.2 mm, flat-rolled aluminum products, rolled or cut to a certain length, regardless of width . The aluminum plates investigated include both unclad aluminum plates and multi-alloy clad aluminum plates. Common uses of the products under investigation include drains and downpipes, building facades, street signs and license plates, electrical boxes, kitchen appliances, and truck trailers. The scope of investigation does not include aluminum can blanks suitable for manufacturing aluminum beverage cans, lids or pull tabs.