G.L. Huyett has received 48 Section 232 tariff exclusions for stainless steel bar product, the company announced.

“Rather than accepting regulatory changes as inevitable, (our team) assessed the situation and built a compelling case to the Federal government that our claimed exclusions possess a national security interest,” stated CEO Tim O’Keeffe. “I suspect that we may be the very first company in the U.S. fastener industry to receive exclusions.”

Announced in March, the Section 232 tariffs were enacted by President Donald Trump on the grounds of national security. The tariffs place duties of 25% on imported steel and 10% on imported aluminum. The Department of Commerce issued a process in June by which importers could file exclusion requests.

The criteria for exclusions was for raw materials, “not produced in the United States in a sufficient and reasonably available amount or of a satisfactory quality, and upon specific national security considerations.”

U.S. companies must file a separate application for each product they wanted excluded. Once the request is posted on Regulations.gov (typically weeks after it was filed), domestic companies have 30 days to comment. The Commerce Department has an additional 90 days after the comment period ends to issue a final determination. 

To date there have been over 40,000 requests submitted, of which about half have received public objection from domestic producers or similar stakeholders. As of November 1, the Commerce Department had approved fewer than 5,000 exclusions.

“This is a big win for us,” noted purchasing manager Zac Chamberlain. “We have another 15 exclusions pending, all of which have passed the public comment period with no objections.”

Each exclusion required approximately 2 personnel hours per submission, Chamberlain told GlobalFastenerNews.com.

“G.L. Huyett seeks to utilize domestic mill sources where possible, but were unable to find suppliers who could meet the high precision requirements that our customers expect,” Chamberlain explained.

Chamberlain had some advice for other fastener companies seeking 232 tariff exclusions.

“Our advice would be to ensure that there are no viable domestic options, obtain official responses from them, include this documentation in the submission, and ensure that official form and supporting documentation are submitted in the correct format and file size that is documented in the requirements.”

The exclusions could help G.L. Huyett keep price inflation in check, added sales VP Dan Harriger.

“This is even a bigger win for our customers,” Harriger stated. “While there is general inflation in the market due to capacity constraints and the underlying production input costs, this is one step in the right direction.” Harriger further noted that the exclusions would primarily affect G.L. Huyett’s stainless key stock and solid pins made from bar.

Established in 1906 by Guy Huyett, G.L. Huyett is one of the oldest continuously operating businesses in Kansas. The company is a manufacturer, master distributor and importer of non-threaded fasteners supplying industrial distributors, and is located at 1215 E. 8th, Minneapolis, KS 67467. Tel: 785 392-3017 Web: Huyett.com