Timken Co. receives about $48 million from US Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act

Timken Co. of North Canton recently received about $48 million, pre-tax, under the U.S. Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act, the company disclosed in a filing submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The act allowed money collected by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection for products subject to antidumping duty orders that entered the country before Oct. 1, 2007, to be distributed to qualifying domestic producers, according to the filing. The act has faced litigation since 2002, and U.S. Customs has held those distributions back while the litigation was ongoing. The filing stated that most of the litigation in which Timken is a “qualifying domestic producer” has ended in recent months. The funds the company received would have been distributed from 2011 to 2015. U.S. Customs has told affected domestic producers that the distributions could be subject to “clawback,” as there are still legal challenges against the act, but Timken stated that it believes that is a “remote” possibility. Timken included more information on the act in its most recent 10-K, filed in February. According to that, the World Trade Organization ruled in September 2002 that payments under the act were not consistent with international trade rules, and in February 2006, the U.S. enacted legislation to end those distributions. (Collected antidumping duties now remain with the U.S. Treasury). This change was effective after Sept. 30, 2007, but U.S. Customs withheld distributions while a number of court cases were underway. It began distributing the funds in April 2012. At that time, Timken disclosed in its first-quarter results that it had received about $80 million from the act and that it expected to receive another $30 million in the second quarter of that year, according to a news release. The most recent distribution of funds was related to bearing products, like ball bearings and tapered roller bearings, from a variety of countries that were subject to antidumping duty orders, said Haiyan (Katherine) Chen, Timken’s manager of global communications effectiveness, in an email. These products entered the United States before Oct. 1, 2007. She said she was unaware of any other local companies that would have received a significant payout, and the company declined further comment.