Nucor Corporation v. United States, 1:19-cv-00042

Background

This action challenges Commerce’s final results in the first administrative review of the countervailing-duty order on Certain Corrosion-Resistant Steel Products from Korea (2015–2016).
Plaintiffs: Nucor (plaintiff) and Dongbu (consolidated plaintiffs); U.S. Department of Commerce issued Preliminary Results and Final Results; multiple industry parties intervened.
Central factual focus: Korean government financial assistance to Dongbu (equity infusions and loan restructuring) and whether those measures conferred countervailable benefits.
Key contested determinations by Commerce: (1) no countervailable benefit from government equity infusions (exhaustion dispute), (2) private loans from creditor committee cannot be used as commercial benchmarks, (3) loan restructuring is a specific subsidy, (4) Hyundai Green Power and Hyundai Steel are not cross-owned, and (5) Nucor’s input-supplier arguments were moot.
Court disposition: sustained Commerce on cross-ownership and mootness of input-supplier claim; remanded for further explanation/evidence on benchmark use of private loans and on specificity of restructuring; held Nucor failed to exhaust its equity-infusions significance claim.

Issues

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
1. Benefit from government equity infusions	Nucor: Commerce wrongly ignored significance of private investor share when concluding no countervailable benefit	Commerce: Issue not preserved in Nucor’s administrative brief; Commerce found private investor prices available and addressed significance	Court: Nucor failed to exhaust this argument administratively; court did not reach merits
2. Use of private creditor loans as benchmarks	Dongbu: private loans on creditor committee could serve as commercial benchmarks if they meet criteria	Commerce: private loans were influenced by GOK-controlled banks and thus not commercial benchmarks	Court: Commerce’s conclusion lacked substantial evidence; remanded for record support or reconsideration
3. Specificity of loan restructuring	Dongbu: Commerce failed to treat restructuring consistently and did not address Dongbu’s arguments	Commerce: relied on prior investigation and IDM to support specificity finding	Court: Commerce did not directly address Dongbu’s arguments; specificity finding unsupported by substantial evidence; remanded
4. Cross-ownership of Hyundai entities	Nucor: Hyundai Steel effectively controls Hyundai Green Power despite minority stake; subsidies to supplier benefit downstream producer	Commerce: ownership was 29% (below thresholds) and no evidence of control/golden share	Court: Commerce’s finding that they were not cross-owned is supported by substantial evidence; sustained
5. Mootness of Nucor’s input-supplier argument	Nucor: input-supplier attribution should be considered	Commerce: input-supplier analysis requires cross-ownership; absent cross-ownership the issue is moot	Court: Because cross-ownership finding is supported, Commerce permissibly treated input-supplier arguments as moot; sustained

Key Cases Cited

United States Steel Corp. v. United States, 348 F. Supp. 3d 1248 (2018) (discussing administrative exhaustion and preservation of issues before Commerce)
Nucor Corp. v. United States, 927 F.3d 1243 (2019) (failure to meaningfully raise an issue at Commerce forecloses judicial review)
Archer Daniels Midland Co. v. United States, 917 F. Supp. 2d 1331 (2013) (creditworthiness analysis and factors for assessing access to commercial credit)
Saarstahl AG v. United States, [citation="21 Ct. Int'l Trade 1158"] (1997) (Commerce’s discretion in applying creditworthiness factors)
Hyundai Heavy Indus. Co. v. United States, 332 F. Supp. 3d 1331 (2018) (agency reasoning must be supported by record citations and examples)
Changzhou Trina Solar Energy Co. v. United States, 352 F. Supp. 3d 1316 (2018) (definition and test for subsidy specificity)
Stein Industries Inc. v. United States, 365 F. Supp. 3d 1364 (2019) (remand required when Commerce fails to address a party’s relevant argument)