Global Fastener News

August 26, 1980 FIN – The International Trade Commission just ruled that domestic steel wire nail producers have not been materially injured by nails dumped on the U.S. market by six South Korean producers.

This decision prevents countervailing duties from being imposed on these imports and more or less leaves domestic producers without further recourse.
This case goes back to last May when the Commerce Department reached a final determination that six South Korean companies had been selling the steel wire nails at less than fair value in the U.S.
The six companies found to have selling margins ranging from 1.3 to 11.5 percent below fair value are Kankoku Nittei, Kankoku Nitto, Korea Nippon Seisen, Korea Murata, Murahami Koyyo and Kuk Dong.
The Trigger Price Mechanism was still in effect at the time of the original investigation by Commerce and this was one of the “fast track” cases handled by Commerce.  After the Commerce Department determined that the nails were being sold for fair value, it was up to the ITC to determine if these imports were injuring the U.S. industry.
Three ITC commissioners were on the majority side: Chairman Bill Alberger, vice chairman Michael Calhoun and commissioner Paula Stern. The two who thought that injury was being done to the domestic industry were commissioners George Moore and Catherine Bedell.
In making their no injury judgement, the commissioners who saw it that way explained that while profits for domestic producers fell from 8% to 4.4% between 1977 and 1979, these could not be blamed as much on dumped South Korean nails as it could on the housing recession and an increase in the number of domestic producers entering the market, especially in the 10 western states, which was said to be suffering most from imports.
Korean imports rose from 0.5% of steel wire nail imports in 1973 to 25% in 1978. The increase, according to the ITC commissioners was attributable to a decreased imports from Japanese or the shift in their production to the Masan, Korea free trade zone. ©1980/2014 Fastener Industry News.
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