VSMPO: US Commerce Dept zero rates magnesium import duty

Yesterday, the US Department of Commerce decided to lower the antidumping duty charged on magnesium imports to 0.41%, which is considered to be nil under American antidumping legislation. This means that the Russian corporation, the world’s leading manufacturer of titanium products, will be able to export magnesium to the United States without paying any duties.

For the record, based on the results of a preliminary investigation (completed in 2005) the US Department of Commerce set the antidumping duty on imports of magnesium produced by VSMPO-Avisma at 21.71%. VSMPO petitioned to revise its actual selling prices immediately from the completion of the initial investigation. As a result, the duties were slashed to 2.34%.

But now the US Department of Commerce has decided to zero-rate the duty. The Russian corporation managed to persuade the authority that some mistakes were made in the preliminary calculations. The elimination of these errors resulted in the duty being slashed to zero, since “following the revision of the actual selling prices it was found that the Russian company” had not been selling magnesium in the US at unfair prices.