Wire Decking From China Injuring U.S. Industry Says ITC in Preliminary Trade Case...

Wire Decking From China Injuring U.S. Industry Says ITC in Preliminary Trade
Case Decision

WASHINGTON, July 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, the U.S. International
Trade Commission issued a unanimous finding that there is a reasonable
indication of material injury to the U.S. industry producing wire decking
caused by unfairly traded imports from China. The Commission's vote clears
the first hurdle to the imposition of antidumping and countervailing duties on
imports of wire decking from China.

Domestic wire decking producers AWP Industries, ITC Manufacturing, J&L Wire
Cloth, Nashville Wire Products and Wireway Husky filed a petition on June 5,
2009, alleging that dumped and subsidized imports of wire decking from China
were injuring the competing U.S. industry. On June 25, 2009, the Commerce
Department initiated both antidumping and countervailing duty investigations
against China in response to the petition. Commerce estimated the dumping
margins by China ranged from 143 to 316 percent. In addition, Commerce
identified over 30 programs as providing potential subsidies to Chinese wire
decking producers and exporters.

Information gathered by the International Trade Commission shows that the
imports from China captured an increasing share of the U.S. market between
2006 and 2008, with imports achieving their largest market share gains in the
first quarter of 2009. These increasing sales of wire decking imported from
China were based on import prices that consistently undercut U.S. prices. The
low Chinese prices prevented U.S. producers from increasing prices even when
costs increased, leading to significant declines in the domestic industry's
financial performance. The domestic industry suffered declines in production,
shipments, employment and profitability over the past three years.

Kathleen Cannon of Kelley, Drye & Warren LLP, counsel to the petitioners,
stated: "We are pleased with the unanimous decision in the U.S. industry's
favor. The domestic wire decking industry has suffered significant lost sales
and plummeting profitability due to dumped and subsidized imports from China.
Remedial relief is needed from these unfair trading practices."

The next step in the trade action will be the issuance of preliminary
determinations as to dumping and subsidies by the Commerce Department. The
current deadline for the imposition of these preliminary decisions is August
31, 2009, in the countervailing duty case and November 19, 2009, in the
antidumping case. If affirmative preliminary decisions are issued by
Commerce, importers must begin to post cash deposits or bonds on all future
entries of wire decking from China in the amount of the subsidy or dumping
margin calculated by Commerce. Thus, as of the end of August, importers of
wire decking may be liable for significant duties if Commerce confirms the
subsidy allegations by the domestic industry.

Wire decking is produced from carbon or ally steel wire and is used in
commercial and industrial storage systems. The open mesh design of wire
decking provides a low-weight, high-strength storage platform. The
petitioners are AWP Industries, Inc. of Frankfort, Kentucky; ITC
Manufacturing, Inc. of Phoenix, Arizona; J&L Wire Cloth LLC of St. Paul,
Minnesota; Nashville Wire Products Mfg. Co., Inc., of Nashville, Tennessee;
and Wireway/Husky Corp. of Denver, North Carolina. Petitioners are
represented in these actions by Kathleen W. Cannon of the law firm Kelley Drye
& Warren LLP.

SOURCE AWP Industries; ITC Mfg.; J&L Wire Cloth; Nashville Wire Products Mfg.
Co.; Wireway/Husky Corp.

Kathleen W. Cannon, Esq., +1-202-342-8590, kcannon@kelleydrye.com, for AWP
Industries; ITC Mfg.; J&L Wire Cloth; Nashville Wire Products Mfg. Co.;
Wireway/Husky Corp.