NLMK settles Section 232 lawsuit with US

NLMK USA has reached a settlement with the US government regarding its lawsuit challenging the Department of Commerce's denial of Section 232 tariff exclusion requests on slab imports, NLMK said Nov. 16.

"In the settlement, without admitting that it had acted improperly, the government agreed to refund to NLMK USA a significant portion of the tariffs it had paid, with accrued interest," NLMK said.

Financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

NLMK, which has US operations in Indiana and Pennsylvania, filed a lawsuit with the US Court of International Trade in February covering 86 exclusion requests submitted by the company for steel slab imports in 2018.

The requests followed a decision by US President Donald Trump in March 2018 to apply a tariff of 25% on imports of steel under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.

Commerce denied NLMK's exclusion requests based on statements and representations from other US steel companies that they were willing and able to supply the products NLMK USA required. However, NLMK challenged that, saying the US mills did not manufacture the products in the quality and quantity required.