NLMK Group supports fair competition

USITC has decided not to issue duty orders on Russian cold-rolled flat steel having determined that the steel industry in the United States is neither injured nor threatened by imports of these products from Russia. Previously, on July 21st 2016, the US Department of Commerce issued a fact sheet that documented an absence of any infraction in the supplies by NLMK (Novolipetsk Steel); and therefore a de minimis or zero dumping rate.

In light of this determination by the USITC, the decision announced in August by the European Commission to impose antidumping duties on imports of these Russian steel products, which was based on an investigation over the same period, seems baffling.

NLMK Group has on numerous occasions pointed to the biased nature of the European Commission’s investigation, which was conducted by its representatives in flagrant violation of all standards. Information provided by NLMK Group was ignored and replaced with data on other companies’ products, as a result of which NLMK was penalized for dumping which had no empirical basis.

NLMK Group supports fair competition in the European and American flat steel markets. Over the last decade NLMK has undertaken ongoing development of its European plants in Belgium, Denmark, Italy and France; and its US-based facilities: employing approximately 3,500 people, they are part of NLMK single production chain.