In the company's cold-mill project, operators started a new pickling line in the second quarter and one of two new galvanizing lines in the third quarter. SDI expects to complete construction of its cold mill in the fourth quarter. The company's union workforce returned on Aug. 12th after a 10-month strike. Despite charges that foreign producers are dumping specialty steel in the U.S., several domestic specialty steelmakers improved sales and earnings compared with last year. In late July, Carpenter, Al Tech Specialty Steel, Republic Engineered, and Talley Metals requested antidumping duties of up to 46 percent on stainless rod imports from Italy, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and Taiwan.
Imports have hurt pricing, producers say.
Dumped and subsidized imports are a serious and growing concern. We anticipate filing trade cases to remedy these unfair trade practices. The company's Stainless Group lost money, and a planned maintenance outage tempered results in its Carbon and Alloy Group. The company expects to continue commissioning the line through the fourth quarter. Operations have improved at Birmingham Steel's Cleveland facility, but the plant still lost money because automotive-related shipments were lower than expected, says Bob Garvey, chairman and CEO of Birmingham.