OREANDA-NEWS. Six major US steel producers today filed petitions charging that allegedly unfairly traded imports of hot-rolled steel products from Australia, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, Netherlands, Turkey and the UK are causing material injury to the US steel injury.

The petitions allege producers in the seven countries are selling hot rolled steel in the US at less than fair value, with alleged dumping margins ranging from 99.2pc for Australia and 21.8pc for Brazil, to 86.96-158.93pc for South Korea, and 96.44pc-200.78pc for Turkey, AK Steel said.

AK Steel joined ArcelorMittal USA, Nucor, SSAB, Steel Dynamics and US Steel in filing the petitions with the US Department of Commerce and the US International Trade Commission.

"AK Steel and other domestic steel manufacturers have been significantly impacted by the onslaught of what we believe are unfairly traded imports of hot-rolled steel," AK Steel chief executive James Wainscott said.

The petitions also alleged that producers in Brazil, South Korea and Turkey benefit from counter-vailable subsidies provided by their governments. The petitions identified 33 such subsidy programs in Brazil, 41 in South Korea and 17 in Turkey.

Imports of hot-rolled steel from the seven countries targeted by this case increased by 73pc to 3.3mn net tons in 2014 from 1.9mn nt in 2012. Those imports have gained a further 54pc in the first five months of this year compared with the same period last year.

AK Steel, ArcelorMittal USA, Nucor, Steel Dynamics and US Steel on 28 July filed petitions charging that unfairly traded imports of cold rolled steel flat products from Brazil, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Netherlands, Russia and the UK were causing injury to the US steel industry.

The petitions filed last month also alleged that producers in Brazil, China, India, South Korea and Russia benefit from countervailing subsidies provided by their governments.

Antidumping duties are meant to offset the amount by which a product is sold at less than fair value, while countervailing duties are intended to offset unfair subsidies provided by foreign governments.

In another case, the Commerce Department is investigating imports of corrosion-resistant steel products from China, India, Italy, South Korea and Taiwan that are allegedly subsidized and sold in the US at below market value.