The Commerce Department does not set steel prices. But its antidumping determinations function as a price floor mechanism that is about as close to a guaranteed repricing as exists in U.S. trade law. When Commerce issues a final affirmative determination on, say, hot-rolled coil from Brazil, South Korea, or Turkey, it calculates a dumping margin and instructs Customs to collect that margin as a cash deposit on every ton that enters the country. Foreign mills either raise their export price to absorb the duty or lose market share. Either way, the landed cost of imported steel rises — and domestic producers fill the gap at higher realized prices.
Cleveland-Cliffs has been one of the most aggressive users of this system. The company, which absorbed AK Steel and ArcelorMittal USA to become the largest flat-rolled steel producer in North America, has petitioned Commerce repeatedly on hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil, and coated steel products. Each final order compounds: duties on HRC, CRC, and galvanized from multiple countries stack into a protective moat around domestic pricing.