The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) announced that it is investigating claims that Mexico’s Deacero S.A.P.I. de C.V. (Deacero) is shipping narrow gauge wire rod to the U.S. to circumvent an existing antidumping duty (AD) order on carbon and certain alloy steel wire rod.

  Per a report in the Federal Register, on Oct. 27, 2017, Nucor claimed that Deaceri was shipping wire rod less than 4.45 mm in diameter to avoid existing orders. “After analyzing the information in the Circumvention Allegation and Supplemental Circumvention Allegation, we determine that Nucor has satisfied the criteria listed above to warrant an initiation of a formal anti-circumvention inquiry,” it said. In 2012 ruling, the Department found that wire rod (4.75 mm to 5.00 mm) produced in Mexico and exported to the U.S. by Deacero did circumventing an existing AD order on wire rod from Mexico.

  In another report, Nucor was cited as saying that that Deacero was “engaging in gamesmanship, altering its wire rod in minor respects by further reducing the diameter of its wire rod by a mere 0.35 mm solely to circumvent the (AD) Order.”  Nucor further asserts that Commerce should “find that all wire rod regardless of minimum diameter that otherwise satisfies the scope definition of wire rod and produced by Deacero is . . . subject to the Order.”