Brown, Casey Ask Commerce to Revisit Electric Steel Laminations, Cores Section 232 Decision

Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Bob Casey, D-Pa., are continuing to press Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to convince the president to hike tariffs on transformer inputs such as grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES) laminations and cores. The two senators, who have a grain-oriented electrical steel producer in each of their states, published their letter on Jan. 13.

They noted that Commerce found in 2020 that imports of these products threaten to impair U.S. national security (see 2107290039). However, no Section 232 tariff or quota action followed. While imported GOES is subject to a 25% tariff from many countries, the laminations and cores enter duty free from Canada and Mexico.

The senators asked that Canada and Mexico be convinced to either reduce their exports of GOES products or use more U.S. GOES when they manufacture cores and laminates.

"The impact of these downstream imports has injured Cleveland-Cliffs, the sole remaining producer of electrical steels, including GOES and Non-Oriented Electrical Steel (NOES), in North America," they wrote. They said that the dollar amount of lamination and core imports, made from GOES steel from China but manufactured in Mexico or Canada, increased 38% in the last year.