ITC Issues Unanimous Preliminary Injury Decision In Trade Action Against PC Strand...

ITC Issues Unanimous Preliminary Injury Decision In Trade Action Against PC
Strand From China

WASHINGTON, July 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. International Trade
Commission today preliminarily determined that unfairly traded imports of
prestressed concrete steel wire strand ("PC strand") from China are causing
injury to the domestic PC strand industry. The Commission issued a unanimous
finding, with all six members of the Commission voting in the affirmative.

The trade action was filed on May 27, 2009, by American Spring Wire Corp.,
Insteel Wire Products Co, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Insteel Industries,
Inc., and Sumiden Wire Products, Corp., alleging injurious unfair trade
practices by imports of PC strand from China. The Commerce Department
initiated an antidumping investigation on June 16, 2009, citing estimated
margins of dumping ranging from 140.16 to 314.59 percent. Commerce
simultaneously initiated a countervailing duty investigation against PC strand
from China, identifying over 30 programs as providing potential subsidies to
Chinese PC strand producers and exporters.

According to information submitted by petitioners, imports from China alone
have surged to levels far in excess of collective import volumes from five
other countries - Brazil, India, Korea, Mexico, and Thailand - found to cause
injury to the PC strand industry in 2003. Imports from China have captured 40
percent of the U.S. market at the expense of competing U.S. producers.
Petitioners assert that these import gains by China were based on widespread
underselling practices. As a result, the domestic industry has seen its
operating profit to sales ratio fall from a double-digit profit in 2006 to a
double-digit loss by the first quarter of 2009.

H. O. Woltz III, President and CEO of petitioner Insteel Wire Products,
stated: "We applaud the Commission's preliminary decision in our favor as a
first step toward remedying the problems we have suffered due to these
unfairly traded imports. Our industry has lost substantial sales volume to
China and has seen huge declines in our production, shipments and employment
as Chinese imports use dumping behavior and government subsidies to undercut
our prices."

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
28, 2009, in the countervailing duty case and November 3, 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 PC strand from China in the amount of the subsidy or dumping margin
calculated by Commerce. Thus, as of late August, importers of PC strand may
be liable for significant duties if Commerce confirms the subsidy allegations
by the petitioners.

PC strand is a steel strand produced from brite wire of carbon steel, suitable
for use in prestressed concrete. The petitioners are American Spring Wire
Corp. of Bedford Heights, Ohio; Insteel Wire Products Co. of Mt. Airy, North
Carolina, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Insteel Industries, Inc.; and Sumiden
Wire Products Corp. of Dickson, Tennessee. Petitioners are represented in
these actions by Kathleen W. Cannon and Paul C. Rosenthal of the law firm
Kelley Drye & Warren, LLP.

SOURCE American Spring Wire Corp., Insteel Wire Products Co., Sumiden Wire
Products Corp.

Kathleen W. Cannon, Esq., +1-202-342-8590, kcannon@kelleydrye.com, or Paul C.
Rosenthal, Esq., +1-202-342-8485, prosenthal@kelleydrye.com, both for American
Spring Wire Corp., Insteel Wire Products Co., Sumiden Wire Products Corp.