Following petitions from a domestic steelmaker that imported tinplate was being ‘dumped’ cheaply on the North American market, the US Department of Commerce is to set preliminary anti-dumping duties on products from China, Canada and Germany.

The Commerce Department found that the imports from the three countries were unfairly priced, or ‘dumped’, into the US market, as part of its anti-dumping duty (AD) investigations. 

If enacted, the move will more than double the price of Chinese tinplate for US canmakers.

Preliminary anti-dumping duties of 122.52% on tinplate products imported from China, 7.02% on those from Germany and 5.29% on those from Canada have been proposed.

Findings show that tinplate and tin-free steel products – used to make cans for food, fancy and aerosol cans – from South Korea, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Turkey and the UK,are not being dumped, and therefore will not be subject to duties.

Canmakers in the US had been concerned that high duties on imported tinplate, which they regard as being of better quality than domestically produced tinplate, would lead to higher retail prices for canned products.

The Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI) applauded the decision to not impose duties on tin mill products imported from the Netherlands, the UK, Turkey, Taiwan and South Korea. 

But it warned new import duties could lead to higher material costs and food prices: “We are hopeful the final Commerce determination will eliminate the proposed duties on Canadian and German tin mill steel. US tinplate prices already remain the highest in the world due to the 232 tariffs, placing domestic canmakers at a competitive disadvantage to foreign imports of unfilled steel cans and foreign filled food products.

“We are thankful that the Commerce Department recognised that the additional duties requested by Cleveland Cliffs would have exacerbated our industry’s competitive disadvantage even more.”

US steelmaker Cleveland Cliffs initiated the investigation with a petition earlier this year, alleging foreign dumping in the tinplate sector.

Commerce will now conduct in-person audits of the information companies submitted as part of the investigations. All parties will have an opportunity to comment on the preliminary determinations. Commerce will announce its final decision for China at the end of October, and for all other countries on or around 8 January 2024.

If Commerce confirms the decision on dumping, an independent agency, the US International Trade Commission (ITC), will then determine whether the domestic industry has been materially harmed or threatened by material injury, by the unfairly traded imports.