Impose 520% tariffs on China to block the US market
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Recently, the U.S. Department of Commerce officially issued a final anti-dumping and anti-subsidy ruling on China's Slag Pots. Chinese producers/exporters face an anti-dumping duty of 294.43%, plus a 226.16% countervailing duty, with a compound tax rate of up to 520.59%.
On August 26, 2025, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced its latest trade policy on Slag Pots imported from China. In the final anti-dumping sanctions, the U.S. Department of Commerce ruled that the dumping rate of all Chinese manufacturers/exporters was uniformly 294.43%, and the margin after offsetting subsidies was adjusted to 278.81%.
At the same time, in terms of the final ruling against subsidies, it was ruled that the subsidy rate of many Chinese enterprises such as Chaeng Great Wall Steel Casting Co. Ltd., UMECC Beijing Equipment Inc. Ltd., Changzhou Jinyuan Machinery Equipment Co., Ltd., Shantou Huaxing Metallurgical Equipment Co., Ltd., etc. were all 226.16%.
It mainly involves products under the US Customs Code 7309.00.0090, which covers almost all types of slag tanks. Slag tanks are important equipment in the metallurgical industry and are used to hold high-temperature slag produced during steel production.
The outbreak of this trade war is by no means accidental. The US Department of Commerce directly transformed the initial ruling rate into the final ruling result on the grounds that "Chinese producers did not respond sufficiently", exposing two deep logics:
1. Weaponization of legal tools
The United States has placed domestic laws such as Article 232 of the Trade Expansion Act above WTO rules and built trade barriers through fuzzy concepts such as "national security". The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on August 29 that although some tariffs were illegal, the Trump administration still tried to maintain a high-pressure situation on the grounds of "fentanyl issues".
2. Accurate strike from the industrial chain
As the core equipment for steel smelting, the United States imports from China in 2023 only US.02 million, but it has become the bullseye of the trade war. This "small cut-out and big influence" strategy aims to disintegrate the integrity of China's high-end equipment manufacturing industry chain.
The US Department of Commerce's series of trade investigations and rulings against Chinese slag tanks are typical trade protectionist behaviors. The high tax rate ruling will seriously hinder the entry of Chinese slag tank products into the US market, bringing huge economic losses and operating pressure to relevant Chinese companies, and will not be conducive to the normal cooperation and development of China and the United States in the field of trade.
Slag tanks seem inconspicuous, but in fact they are core equipment for steel smelting. There are not many factories that can be produced in the world, and China accounts for 70% of the production capacity. Due to sharp decline in demand and high costs, the last one of the domestic slag tank plants in the United States went down in 2019. Subsequently, the US steel mill turned to import Chinese slag tanks, and the import volume increased by nearly 19 times in five years from 2018 to 2023.
Before the ruling, domestic factories tried to avoid risks through re-export, transport slag tanks to Vietnam and other countries for certificates of origin, and then drifted to the Port of Los Angeles. The re-export once raised the customs declaration unit price by 15%, but it was still 40% lower than the domestic price in the United States.
However, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) launched a pilot program of “supply chain traceability” this year, focusing on 7309 coding. CBP's new algorithm can compare the batch number, casting date, and shipment period of the melting furnace. Once the metal composition is found to be inconsistent with the historical data of the declared place of origin, the entire batch of goods will be directly detained.
In November last year, a batch of slag tanks re-exported through Vietnam were identified as "substantial inadequate change" and the importer was fined .8 million. The news came back to China, and the re-export chain cooled down instantly.
Taking a domestic manufacturer as an example, its factory produces 1,200 slag tanks annually, and 70% of them are exported to the United States. Faced with the ruling, he had three ways: to give up the US market and switch to the Middle East and Southeast Asia with low profits; to set up warehouses in the US, but the investment was large and he faced many difficulties; to cut off the slag tank line and turn it into wind turbine wheels, a team needs to be reorganized and customers are lost.
In response to this ruling, the American Steel Association is not unified. The giants agree to increase taxes, but the downstream electric furnace factories complained that they rely on Chinese slag tanks and their local production capacity cannot be handled at all. The United States Federation of Steel Workers (USW) has calculated that if the price of slag tanks increases by per ton of steel, the profits of the electric furnace factory will be cut by 30%. The union is worried that the one who increases taxes may be hurt by its own members first.
More subtle is that American steel mills are currently busy lobbying for another thing: raising taxes on imported billets. Slag tanks are just a prologue, and their real goal is to plug all loopholes that may impact local production capacity. The Ministry of Commerce set the tax rate to 520%, which is more like a gesture: either don’t come or change it according to my rules.
Remind all freight forwarders and cargo owners to keep abreast of the latest tariff policies, check ship dates and freight rates, and make cargo transportation plans in advance.
