The US Department of Commerce has self-initiated an investigation into whether imports of grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES) products pose a national security risk to the country, Kallanish reports. 

The investigation - under the aegis of Section 232 - covers stacked transformer cores, wound cores, transformers and transformer regulators. 

“Laminations and cores made of grain-oriented electrical steel are critical transformer components,” says the department. “Electrical steel is necessary for power distribution transformers for all types of energy – including solar, nuclear, wind, coal, and natural gas – across the country. An assured domestic supply of these products enables the United States to respond to large power disruptions affecting civilian populations, critical infrastructure, and US defense industrial production capabilities.”

The investigation drew praise from domestic iron and steel producer Cleveland-Cliffs. 

“The outcome of this investigation will be critical to addressing circumvention of existing national security tariffs covering grain-oriented electrical steel using laminations and cores cut in Mexico and in Canada as means for tariff evasion,” the company says in a statement. “Cleveland-Cliffs’ wholly-owned subsidiary AK Steel is the last remaining producer of GOES in North America. This blatant circumvention activity has degraded the domestic electrical steel market and now threatens the viability of Cleveland-Cliffs continuing to produce GOES, a critical element to the security of America’s electric grid.”

AK became the sole domestic producer of GOES when Allegheny Technologies Inc idled its Bagdad, Pennsylvania, line in 2015.