Supply Chain

• Steel traders, shippers urge ports spending Sep 24, 2012

  Steel importers are urging Congress to make the nation’s ports and dredging needs a top priority.

• Elkay asks for deadline extension on steel sinks investigation Sep 24, 2012

  Elkay Manufacturing Co. has asked the Commerce Department’s Import Administration to extend its deadline for a final determination in an anti-dumping investigation of imports of drawn stainless steel sinks from China.

• S. Africa looking to enact export tax on raw minerals Sep 24, 2012

  South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources is set to approach the treasury about a proposed levy to be introduced on all raw mineral exports, including chrome ore, according to AMM sister publication Metal Bulletin.

• China lists pipe products, wind towers in trade case Sep 21, 2012

  China has challenged U.S. dumping and subsidy duties on a number of metal products, including steel pipe, aluminum extrusions and wind towers, according to updated documents at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

• Charter Steel sues Tatano for $300,000 Sep 21, 2012

  Charter Steel has filed a lawsuit against Tatano Wire & Steel Inc., claiming the company did not pay nearly $300,000 for steel Charter delivered.

• Tax credit end may be bad news for plate Sep 21, 2012

  One of steel plate’s most important emerging markets is bracing for a "significant" drop in the fourth quarter due to the threat of a year-end tax credit phaseout that’s already causing cutbacks, according to an executive of SSAB Americas.

• Strike at 14 East, Gulf Coast ports averted Sep 21, 2012

  The International Longshoremen’s Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance have agreed to extend labor talks by 90 days to Dec. 29, averting a potential work stoppage at 14 ports along the East and Gulf coasts.

• GM in labor deal, Chrysler still talking Sep 21, 2012

  The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union and General Motors Co. have reached a tentative agreement on a new four-year labor pact, leaving only Chrysler Group LLC among the Detroit area’s Big Three automakers without a contract at its Canadian operations.

• Investors wary of steel mills, but distributors still attractive Sep 21, 2012

  Equity investors have largely lost faith in the upstream steel sector, but the service center industry continues to offer attractive returns, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst Sal Tharani.

• Commerce sets supply chain committee hearing Sep 21, 2012

  The Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA) advisory committee on supply chain competitiveness will hold a public meeting Oct. 19.

• Commerce turns down exporter's plea for more time Sep 21, 2012

  The Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA) has declined, in part, a request by producer/exporter Beijing Gang Yan Diamond Products Co. to extend the response time for a supplemental questionnaire in an administrative review of anti-dumping duties on imports of diamond sawblades from China.

• Plate prices slip on low demand, oversupply Sep 20, 2012

  U.S. steel plate prices have resumed their downward trend as minimal spot ordering exacerbates a sense of oversupply in the market and scrap input costs fall, sources told AMM.

• GM, Chrysler talks progressing slowly: CAW Sep 20, 2012

  Contract talks with General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC are showing "gradual progress," the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union said Thursday.

• Pacific World plea on drill pipe from China nixed by ITA Sep 20, 2012

  The Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA) has rejected a scope request by Pacific World Trade Inc. on imports of drill pipe from China.

• Information deadline in China hand truck review extended Sep 20, 2012

  The Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA) has extended to Oct. 1 a deadline to submit information to be included in preliminary results relating to surrogate values in an anti-dumping duty administrative review on hand trucks and parts thereof from China.

• ITA rejects Cosco submission in hand truck review vs. China Sep 20, 2012

  The Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA) has rejected a submission in its anti-dumping duty administrative review on hand trucks and certain parts thereof from China.

• Reliance Steel in deal to acquire GH Metal Sep 20, 2012

  Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. has agreed to acquire carbon steel processor and fabricator GH Metal Solutions Inc. through its Feralloy Corp. subsidiary.

• Boeing union urged to reject latest offer Sep 19, 2012

  Negotiators for Boeing Co.’s white-collar union have unanimously called for the rejection of a contract offer, while there are indications that some engineers and technicians have already begun to slow their work pace ahead of an Oct. 1 vote on the proposed four-year labor agreement.

• Ports prepare for possible strike Oct. 1 Sep 19, 2012

  Ports on the East and Gulf coasts are bracing for a potential work stoppage—the first in 35 years—when the labor contract with the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) expires at the end of this month.

• Commerce schedules environmental committee hearing Sep 19, 2012

  The Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA) has scheduled an Oct. 11 public meeting of its environmental technologies trade advisory committee.

• Commerce aligns rulings on stainless steel sinks Sep 19, 2012

  The Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA) is aligning a final countervailing duty determination with a final anti-dumping duty determination on imports of drawn stainless steel sinks from China.

• Commerce rejects request for extension in wind towers case Sep 19, 2012

  The Commerce Department has denied a one-week extension requested by the Wind Tower Trade Coalition to submit case briefs and rebuttal briefs in an anti-dumping duty investigation of utility-scale wind towers from China and Vietnam.

• M/K Canada’s Rombough retiring in January 2013 Sep 19, 2012

  David Rombough, president of Marmon/Keystone Canada Inc., plans to retire from the company Jan. 31. He will be replaced by Lou Germano, who is currently executive vice president.

• China says US trade action ‘political’ Sep 18, 2012

  A trade complaint filed by the United States at the World Trade Organization (WTO) was politically motivated, China claimed Tuesday.