My learned colleague Stuart mentioned to me yesterday that he saw an article in a trial subscription of Steel Business Briefing, that steel producers in the US “were exporting finished products overseas at under domestic prices.” Now if that wasn’t a hoot given all the squawking by US steel companies over foreign material entering the […]

[Read more →]

MetalMiner has always held a strong free market philosophy. Our belief is in most cases the benefits of lower cost material to consumers outweighs the damage to domestic producers that global trade can bring. In our experience, calls for anti- dumping fines, import tariffs or quotas are nearly always brought by large industrial producers.  The losers […]

[Read more →]

Type in “Doha trade talks and steel” into Google and few if any articles appear. And yet I can’t help but fear that the latest round of Doha trade talks starting again this week may have profound long term implications on metals buyers across this country and elsewhere. First, a re-cap of Doha and who/what […]

[Read more →]

My hometown paper, The Chicago Tribune had a great little article on an anti-dumping case involving dry cleaner hangers. It’s interesting because everyone who takes their clothes to the dry cleaners will feel the pain of the ITC’s (International Trade Commission) ruling. Our government ruled in favor of the hanger producers here in the US […]

[Read more →]

A couple of months ago we wrote several pieces on a metals anti-dumping case involving uncovered mattress innersprings from China, South Africa and Vietnam. The case is still on-going with a postponement of the preliminary determination to July 30, 2008. An extension was granted to petitioners Leggett & Platt by the ITC so that the […]

[Read more →]

My local paper, the Chicago Tribune, had a great article yesterday on the state of the near booming (my words, not theirs) steel industry. There were several statistics in the article worth mentioning and of course, commenting on. Specifically, the US steel industry is operating at 90% capacity, which does not come as any big […]

[Read more →]

I read a fascinating article in Forbes last week about a growing international black market for rice. International rice prices are approximately 4 times higher than prices in China. And since China accounts for one third of the world’s production, according to the article, domestic policies in China greatly impact the global market place. What […]

[Read more →]

A friend and colleague of mine recently made a very interesting observation about global trading. She said to me, “Lisa, if you think of importing as a privilege, it will be a lot easier to deal with the nonsense that our government subjects companies to.” My friend’s comment seems very poignant particularly after reading this […]

[Read more →]

A few weeks ago we wrote about an anti-dumping petition for mattress innersprings brought by Leggett & Platt. Here is the five second overview: Leggett & Platt, along with these firms, Hickory, Sealy, Simmons, Spring Co., Symbol Mattress filed an anti-dumping petition alleging the US innerspring industry has been materially harmed by imports from China, […]

[Read more →]

One of our men on the ground in China left a message on my cell phone Sunday night, “Lisa I have to discuss a US import issue with you.” Hmm I thought, it seemed a little dire. I wondered what this was going to be about. I awoke to an urgent email, “As you know, […]

[Read more →]