Daily Times

The flood of requests from US manufacturers with the Commerce Department to exempt them from the Trump administration’s hefty tariffs on steel and aluminum imports is exposing competitive information to rivals, customers and US metal producers.

The tariff exemptions process is a new front in a battle between US steel and aluminum consumers, fighting to keep prices for those metals down, and US metal producers which argue that foreign rivals have kept prices low with unfair trading practices. So far, over 22,500 applications for exemptions have landed in Washington and many more arrive each day. Over 4,000 objections have been filed, which is also expected to grow.

Only 98 applications have been processed as of last week, and of those, only 42 were approved, according to the Commerce Department.

Companies are required to fill out a five-page form for each type of product it imports that details everything from the chemical composition of the metal and the volumes they use to its strength and where they are currently buying it overseas.

Those are details nearly every manufacturer considers highly proprietary, since it can be used to assess their cost structure. Competitors can use such insights to tell customers that the other company is likely to face supply shortages or is about to sharply raise prices.

Greenfield Industries Inc, a subsidiary of China’s TDC Cutting Tools Inc in Seneca, South Carolina, has filed 1,176 requests to exempt the various types of specialty steel it imports from China to make cutting tools at its 330-employee US operation. In one application, for instance, Greenfield states “the sole US producer of high speed steel material appropriate for cutting tools is not currently ramping up any production to expand this aspect of their business and has not shown any interest in quoting new business.”

Published in Daily Times, June 29^th 2018.