KYIV, Dec. 1 (Ukrainian News) In a drive to maintain its nominal market interests in the United States, Ukraine’s Illich metallurgical plant plans to hotly contest an antidumping investigation involving its hot-rolled coils, a plant representative said Thursday.
Earlier in the year, the United States International Trade Commission launched an antidumping investigation into the import of Ukrainian hot-rolled steel coils.
“We will defend our interests under any circumstances,” said Oleh Panchokha, a specialist with the plant’s foreign trade service.
Despite the fact that the Illich plant exports only small quantities of its hot-rolled coils to the U.S., Illich is set to preserve its share of the market. Panchokha said that the plant has not yet received any official documents about the investigation and has not yet started preparing its defense. Part of that decision could include preparing its defense in conjunction with the Zaporizhstal metallurgical plant, the other Ukrainian producer of hot-rolled coils involved in the investigation.
The U.S.’s international trade commission had said that it would decide by December 28 of this year whether to impose a preliminary import duty on Ukrainian hot-rolled steel coils.
The commission launched its investigation based on complaints from steel industry trade unions and the powerful steel concerns Bethlehem Steel, Gallantin Steel, IPSCO Steel, LTV Steel, National Steel Corp., Steel Dynamics, the U. S. Steel Group, and Weirton Steel.
