The Commerce Department announced preliminary findings from an ongoing investigation that aluminum extrusion producers and exporters in China, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam imported extrusions at less than fair value into the United States. Because these are preliminary determinations, Commerce will continue to gather information and accept comments from relevant parties while the investigation is active.
Solar products covered by this study include tracker assemblies, racks and supports made from aluminum extruded in the countries surveyed. Two components mentioned in the latest updates to the scope are actuators and bearings used on solar tracking systems.
GameChange Solar, a company that produces racking and tracker structures, submitted comments to the Commerce Department in November 2023 to exclude bearings, off-grid PV modules and actuators from these import duties. The trade has changed the scope and removed off-grid modules, but actuators and bearings for actuators remain subject to looming tariffs. GameChange resubmitted comments on March 28 to remove actuators, arguing that this hardware, like pre-assembled solar panels – which are excluded from these duties – contains many more components than extruded aluminum.
The US Aluminum Extruders Coalition and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International unions – petitioners in this case – commended Commerce’s decision to impose tariffs and urged the department to enforce these decisions in the final. phase of the procedure, according to a press release.
“The Commerce Dept.’s Findings against these 14 countries demonstrate how widespread dumping practices are worldwide and underscore the importance of vigorously enforcing anti-dumping laws to protect American businesses and workers from the devastating effects of unfair trade,” said Robert E. DeFrancesco, trade counsel to petitioners and partner in the International Trade Practice at Wiley. “We are encouraged by the preliminary positive findings and will continue to work with the Department of Commerce to ensure that the final determination ranges accurately reflect the full extent of the dumping occurring by the foreign producers.”
The Trade calculated positive preliminary dumping rates for these countries within the following ranges: China 4.91 to 376.85%; Colombia 8.85 to 34.47%, Ecuador 17.23 to 51.20%; India 3.44 to 39.05%; Indonesia 5.66 to 112.21%; Italy 15.3 to 41.67%; South Korea 2.42%; Malaysia 26.7 to 27.51%; Mexico 9.18 to 82.03%; Taiwan 33.93 to 57.86%; Thailand 2.02 to 4.04%; Turkey 45.44 to 602.72%; UAE 9.13-42.29%; and Vietnam 2.85-41.84%.
Trade determination determines provisional duties in the dumping segments of the investigations. One week after the publication of Commerce’s preliminary decision in the Federal Register, the Department will direct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to begin suspending the liquidation and collecting preliminary duties (in the form of cash deposits) on the submissions of aluminum extrusions from these 14 countries. For imports from China, Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey, anti-dumping duties will be added to the countervailing duties announced on March 5, 2024.
The trade is expected to make final rulings in mid-July, which could be extended until the end of September 2024, and preliminary calculated rates could rise.
