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AK Steel to ‘vigorously appeal’ Chinese import tax

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By Jessica Heffner, Staff Writer Updated 6:14 PM Thursday, December 10, 2009

MIDDLETOWN — The head of locally-based AK Steel said the company will “vigorously appeal” a decision by China, the world’s biggest steel consumer, to impose anti-dumping import taxes of up to 25 percent on specialized steel imports from Russia and the United States.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said Thursday, Dec. 10, that U.S. and Russian companies are selling flat-rolled electrical steel, a product used in the power industry for items such as transformers, at unfairly low prices in China. Starting today, importers will need to pay anti-dumping deposits ranging from 10.7 percent to 25 percent to import product from U.S. companies such as AK Steel.

Jim Wainscott, president, chairman and CEO of AK Steel, said the company was “disappointed” in the ministry’s decision as he believes it lacks a legal standing. AK will “continue to participate in the on-going anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations and will urge MOFCOM to reach negative final determinations.

“We would expect to vigorously appeal any adverse final decisions,” Wainscott said in a statement.

Wainscott said in terms of the company’s 2009 electrical steel shipments, China represented a “relatively small percentage of our total sales of electrical steel. Going forward, we will continue to assess growing global market opportunities for electrical steel sales, including China.”

AK Steel, a global leader in electrical steel, melts its electrical steel product at its Butler Works facility in Butler, Pa., and finishes the products in Butler and at its Zanesville plant. The company has an annual capacity of more than 300,000 tons, according to Alan McCoy, spokesman for AK Steel.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2843 or jheffner@coxohio.com.

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