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28 March 2024

Nail producer faces US charges

Published
By VM Sathish
 

A Jebel Ali based manufacturer of steel nails is facing charges in the United States for “dumping” nails at less than fair value.

 

Dubai Wire FZE and its US clients are the subject of a joint complaint filed with the US International Trade Commission (USITC) by leading American nail manufacturers. The UAE Company exports 90 per cent of its total production to the $1.2 billion (Dh4.4bn) a year US market.

 

Its US distributors include Continental Materials Inc, Itochu Building Products Company and Black & Decker. Rupak Ved, President and Chief Executive Officer, Dubai Wire, said: “We have been exporting steel nails to the US for 20 years now. We used to export $100m (Dh367m) worth of nails per year to the US market.”

 

The firm has been fighting the charges and expects a final verdict early next year. “We have discussed the issue with the UAE Ministry of National Economy. The US market for nails is already down due to the housing industry problem created by sub-prime crisis. Now we operate at 50 per cent capacity and efforts are on to find alternative markets in Europe,” Ved added.

 

While the US Consulate in Dubai did not comment on the dispute, an official spokesman of the US Embassy in Abu Dhabi referred all questions to the Department of Commerce. However, no official comments were made by the US Commerce Department. An interim investigation report by USITC Chairman Daniel R Pearson in August 2007 alleged that “certain nail manufacturers from the UAE and China have threatened the US nail industry by dumping these steel products at less than fair value”.

 

From May 29, 2007 the Commission has been conducting an inquiry into the alleged dumping of UAE nails in the US market.

 

The investigation covers Dubai Wire FZE and a group of 24 Chinese producers and exporters who are accused in the case.