Commercial Metals, Danieli, Gerdau Hit With Steel Antitrust Suit

Commercial Metals Co., Danieli Corp., and a Gerdau SA subsidiary were hit with a lawsuit in a San Francisco federal court claiming that they are trying to elbow a rival out of the southwestern U.S. steel market by selling below cost and interfering with its plans to build a rebar plant.

The predatory pricing by CMC and Gerdau Reinforcing Steel was meant to “stifle” Pacific Steel Group’s growth and stop it “from achieving economies of scale,” the lawsuit says. When that didn’t work, CMC sought to block PSG from commissioning a “micro mill” through Danieli, the only company ...