Commerce Correctly Found Hyundai Steel Wasn't Subsidized by Cheap Electricity, Korean Gov't Says

The Commerce Department’s determination that the South Korean government did not subsidize Hyundai Steel by providing electricity for less than adequate remuneration (LTAR) was correct and the government-provided cost data was not "tainted," the South Korean government said in a May 19 motion at the Court of International Trade (Hyundai Steel v. U.S., CIT # 22-00170).

Record evidence showed that the prices charged by Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) were above its reported costs and were sufficient to cover the costs, said South Korea. Nucor had argued that the methodology used by Commerce limited its analysis to the aggregate performance of KEPCO rather than the prices actually paid by Hyundai (see 2305020052).

The Korea Power Exchange's (KPX's) price setting covers costs and includes consideration of its subsidiaries' rates of return and Commerce individually reviewed financial data for those subsidiaries to make sure they recovered their costs, South Korea said. Nucor's assertion that the Korean government-provided cost data did not reflect the actual costs of generation is contradicted by record evidence collected by Commerce, South Korea said. Nucor failed to cite any evidence that electricity prices were not set to cover costs or that the reported costs were inaccurate, South Korea said. Given the lack of evidence provided by Nucor to back up its assertions, the court should find in favor of Commerce, it said.

Nucor's arguments were largely based on objections to Commerce's methodology, but the agency has "broad authority" to determine which methods to employ, South Korea said. "Just because Nucor may have preferred for Commerce to have used a different analytical model does not mean that Commerce’s conclusions are unsupported by substantial evidence," it said.