Steel Plate Manufacturer Accuses Largest Steel Companies of Antitrust Conspiracy in Lawsuit

JSW Steel (USA) is accusing three U.S. steelmakers of a conspiracy and group "boycott" to hinder JSW's ability to make and sell competing steel products, according to a June 8 complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Following the imposition of Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum in 2018, JSW claims U.S. Steel, Nucor and AK Steel owner Cleveland-Cliffs, which control 80% of domestic steel capacity, colluded to refuse to sell raw material to JSW.

JSW, as a steel plate, pipe and coil producer, purchases semi-finished steel slab that it typically was able to secure from foreign producers until the 2018 tariffs, it said. U.S. Steel, Nucor and AK Steel all said during proceedings related to the Section 232 tariffs they had the capacity to fulfill JSW's slab needs, the complaint said. U.S. Steel said it had an “enormous incentive” to supply JSW, the complaint said. Then U.S. producers refused to supply metal to JSW, it said. JSW said this indicated the defendants' “illicit agreement to boycott JSW.”

JSW cited Nucor statements that the companies were “working together," noting that the CEOs of U.S. Steel, Nucor and AK Steel met with President Donald Trump in 2018 to announce the Section 232 tariffs. JSW also filed a lawsuit at the Court of International Trade challenging the Commerce Department's decisions to deny its Secton 232 exclusion requests based on the availability of domestic steel, which settled in October 2020 (see 2010200029).

JSW said the group boycott raised JSW's costs, forced it to postpone a major expansion of a plate and pipe mill in Texas, jeopardized the company's access to capital markets and resulted in the payment of tens of millions of dollars in tariffs. “Defendants' boycott had its intended effect of significantly diminishing JSW as a competitor -- a reality that Defendants took egregious advantage of,” the complaint said. “Specifically, after JSW began to suffer significantly from the boycott, it announced an indefinite postponement of its Baytown expansion project. Around the same time that JSW announced the delay of its plans, however, Nucor announced its own plans to build a new state-of-the-art steel plate mill.”