Bethlehem Shocked by ITC Ruling on Cold Rolled
Bethlehem Steel Corporation
For Immediate Release
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 3, 2000 -- The U.S. International Trade Commission determined earlier today that unfairly traded imports of cold-rolled carbon steel flat products from six countries -- Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Russia, South Africa, and Thailand -- have not caused material injury to the domestic industry producing such products. This means that the domestic industry will not receive any relief from the unfair trade practices already determined by the U.S. Government to exist.
Bethlehem Steel Corporation is shocked by this outcome. Although the grounds for the Commission's decision will not become clear until it issues its opinion, on its face, the decision indicates that the Commission simply disregarded the commercial and economic realities of the marketplace.
The evidence that was before the Commission showed, overwhelmingly, that the domestic industry has suffered great harm from unfairly traded imports. During the period covered by the Commission's investigation, the volume of these imports doubled -- from 1.1 million tons in 1996 to 2.2 million tons in 1998 -- as did their U.S. market share. These import increases were the result of steep declines in the prices of those imports -- amounting to approximately 25 percent over the period covered by the investigation. During this period, these imports were consistently sold at prices well below cold-rolled steel made domestically.
In the wake of this surge of unfairly traded, low-priced imports, the domestic cold-rolled industry was devastated, notwithstanding extremely strong demand in the U.S. market that it serves. By the time the cases were filed, the order books of domestic producers virtually disappeared. U.S. producers kept their mills running only by sharply lowering their prices. The result, not surprisingly, was that the operating income of the industry dropped by more than $500 million from 1996 to 1998, a decrease of 70 percent. At the time the cases were filed, in June 1999, the industry was actually operating in the red. Hard-working steelworkers, their families, and their communities suffered equally grave harm. And, to repeat, all of this occurred in the face of strong demand, consistent with strong growth in the U.S. economy generally.
We will promptly appeal this decision to the U.S. Court of International Trade. Based upon the record that was before the Commission, we believe that this decision was clearly unlawful and are confident that the courts will ultimately reach the same conclusion.