US Commerce countervailing duty order on Algerian steel rebar (72.94%, facts-available/adverse-inference rate); parallel provisional CVD on Egypt (29.51%) and Vietnam (1.08%)

Mechanism

This action is the countervailing-duty (subsidy-offset) track of the same Rebar Trade Action Coalition petition that produced the antidumping case filed separately (see responds_to). Commerce initiated the CVD investigation alongside the AD investigation in June 2025, and on 13 January 2026 published preliminary affirmative CVD determinations for Algeria, Egypt, and Vietnam.

Algeria's track diverged from the others: on 21 July 2025 USTR determined Algeria is not a "Subsidies Agreement country" under section 701(b) of the Tariff Act of 1930, meaning the US ITC is not required to make an injury determination before a CVD order can issue. The ITC formally closed its Algeria CVD injury investigation on 18 May 2026 on that basis. Because no injury test was needed, Commerce's 27 March 2026 final affirmative subsidy determination was sufficient on its own, and Commerce issued the CVD order on 6 July 2026 — applying a 72.94% countervailing duty to Tosyali Iron Steel Industry Algeria SPA and, as the all-others rate, to every other Algerian producer/exporter. Commerce based this on "facts available with adverse inferences," i.e., Algerian parties did not cooperate sufficiently with the subsidy questionnaires, so Commerce used the highest calculable/alleged subsidy rate as a non-cooperation penalty.

Egypt and Vietnam remain on the standard track requiring an ITC injury finding, so their 29.51% and 1.08% CVD rates (set 13 January 2026) are provisional cash-deposit rates pending final CVD determinations later in 2026.

Severity rationale

Severity 3 (quant basis, anchored on the 72.94% Algeria CVD rate):

• The CVD rate stacks on top of the parallel 127.32% AD margin for

Algeria, compounding the effective duty burden on Algerian rebar, but the CVD order alone (72.94%) is below the AD margin already filed as the primary severity driver for this case family.

• Scope is narrow (a single construction-materials product line,

HTS-classified rebar) and Algeria is not a top-tier US rebar supplier.

• Egypt (29.51%) and Vietnam (1.08%) provisional CVD rates are

materially lower and remain unfinalized, keeping the blended country impact below a severity-4 rating.

Downstream implications

• Algerian rebar exporters: the CVD order compounds with the

existing 127.32% AD cash-deposit rate, making Algerian rebar effectively unsellable in the US regardless of the AD case's own final outcome.

• US rebar producers (Commercial Metals Company and peers):

additional price support from the CVD order stacking on the AD margin.

• Egypt and Vietnam: watch for final CVD determinations later in

2026, which will set permanent duty rates alongside the parallel AD case's final margins (Vietnam's final CVD determination published 30 July 2026, per Federal Register doc 2026-15437).

Open questions

• Whether Egypt's and Vietnam's final CVD rates diverge materially from

their 13 January 2026 preliminary rates (29.51% and 1.08%).

• Whether any Algerian producer other than Tosyali later demonstrates

cooperation sufficient to earn a separate rate below the 72.94% adverse-inference all-others rate.