WASHINGTON, D.C. — West Virginia’s Congressional delegation is among those expressing support for a petition recently filed by Cleveland-Cliffs and the United Steelworkers in connection with what company and union officials have called unfairly traded tin and chromium coated sheet steel products.
In January, Cleveland-Cliffs, which operates a tin plate manufacturing facility in Weirton, announced it had partnered with the United Steelworkers to file antidumping and countervailing duty petitions against eight countries including China, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Taiwan and Turkey.
“The United States is still the largest importer of steel in the world, despite being the most environmentally friendly steel producing nation. As our filing shows, there has been a significant surge in unfairly priced tinplate imports flooding the United States over the past two years, and we cannot let this persist. We welcome competition with any and all imported steel as long as our U.S. trade laws are respected, and we will use all the tools at our disposal to remedy the situation,” Lourenco Goncalves, Cleveland-Cliffs’ chairman, president and chief executive officer, said at the time the company’s petition was filed.
Thursday afternoon, U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., as well as U.S. Reps. Alex Mooney and Carol Miller, both R-W.Va., expressed support for the petition, signing on to a letter sent to officials with the U.S. International Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
According to information released by Manchin’s office, the Weirton tin mill facility employs approximately 950 people, and “has seen production stall to a near halt due to foreign competition.”
“Unfortunately, the domestic tin mill market has been overrun by imports from the countries at issue in this proceeding…Despite domestic investment and the dedication of skilled workers at Weirton, the increasing trend of high-volume imports of these products at unfair trading prices threaten to shut the Weirton facility and severely impact the livelihoods of its more than 950 employees,” states a letter signed by the lawmakers.
In addition to Manchin, Capito, Mooney and Miller, others signing on to the letter were U.S. Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio; U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind.; U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio; and U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, D-Ind.
According to Manchin’s Office, Census data indicates that from 2019 to 2021, tin mill product imports from the subject countries increased by over 21 percent. Subsequently, tin mill imports from these subject countries, through November 2022, increased by an additional 21 percent.
“We urge you to thoroughly pursue this investigation and carefully consider the submissions of our domestic tin mill steel producers as you move promptly to preliminary determinations that can stem the flow of unfairly traded tin mill steel into the United States,” the lawmakers continued.
Tin mill products are used primarily for packaging applications, particularly for canned food, among many others. Cleveland-Cliffs produces tin mill products at its Weirton facility and sells approximately 300,000 net tons per year.