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U.S. begins trade investigation of supercalendered paper from Canada

The U.S. Department of Commerce has initiated a countervailing duty (CVD) investigation of imports of supercalendered paper from Canada, at the request of The Coalition for Fair Paper Imports, an ad hoc association of two U.S. manufacturers of…

The U.S. Department of Commerce has initiated a countervailing duty (CVD) investigation of imports of supercalendered paper from Canada, at the request of The Coalition for Fair Paper Imports, an ad hoc association of two U.S. manufacturers of supercalendered paper — Madison Paper Industries and Verso Corp.

Media reports from the past few months indicate that the main target of the coalition is Port Hawkesbury Paper in Nova Scotia.

A story in the Globe and Mail notes that the Canadian companies named in the coalition’s petition are Resolute Forest Products Inc., Port Hawkesbury Paper, Irving Paper Ltd. and Catalyst Paper Corp.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is scheduled to make its preliminary injury determination in this matter by April 13, 2015.

If the ITC determines that there is a reasonable indication that imports of supercalendered paper from Canada materially injures, or threatens material injury to, the U.S. domestic SC paper industry, the investigation will continue and the Department of Commerce will be scheduled to make its preliminary CVD determination in May 2015. If the ITC’s preliminary determination is negative, the investigation will be terminated.

The scope of this investigation covers all SC paper regardless of basis weight, brightness, opacity, smoothness, or grade, and whether in rolls or in sheets. It also covers all uncoated paper

that meets the scope definition regardless of the type of pulp fiber or filler material. For the purposes of this investigation, SC paper is uncoated paper that has undergone a calendering process in which the base sheet is processed through a set of supercalenders, a supercalender, or a soft nip calender operation.

According to the Department of Commerce, imports of SC paper from Canada were 1.4 million tonnes in 2012, 1.6 million tonnes in 2013 and 1.1 million tonnes in 2014. Imports last year were valued at US$868 million.