The good, fantastic, thrilling news is that Nucor, thanks to our industry’s objections, had their complaint voted down 6-0 so there is no immediate effect. We Twittered and posted on our Facebook account earlier today. The official ruling may be read here.
Why did they lose? I don’t know. However, a 6-0 decision against them is a crushing, extraordinarily rare ruling. It may be the panel figured out their filing was sloppy as hell (including many companies not involved in the business of bolts and nuts were included on both sides), maybe they didn’t like Nucor’s lawyering wherein they made totally false statements as to certain facts. They certainly didn’t believe Nucor and a 6-0 defeat is indicative of that.
The bad news is that Nucor gets a chance to appeal to the International Trade Commission Court. That takes 8 to 12 months. That organization can either dismiss it and it’s dead or they can remand it back and say the ITC has to reconsider it. That’s rare. The ITC then can affirm its decision or (even rarer) overturn itself. That’s like getting a politician to say “I was wrong” — unlikely.
At some point, Nucor will refile an amended complaint, assumedly with a law firm that conducts better research. It’s expected that complaint will only cover Grades 5, 8, A325, and A490 hex machine bolts with matching nuts of course) because they have a case on some of those items. That one will likely pass — possibly with the grade 5 bolts stricken from the list — but this will be nearly two years down the road.
This is a HUGE defeat for Nucor and will keep thousands of American people working in their jobs in our industry. On behalf of my company, we want to thank the many people who offered their support and encouragement. We further want to thank those who took the time to complain or otherwise make their feelings known with the USDOC and ITC. This is a service to American workers and American industry. It’s really a shame Nucor saw otherwise.
I do not hate Nucor despite some people’s claims. I just don’t like them or how they do business. And as one of the people at my company who can make a decision to not buy from a company, we didn’t buy from Nucor and we will continue to not buy from Nucor. We buy from Infasco, happily. Nicer people, nicer attitude, and excellent quality. Customer service does matter. If Nucor learned that, they might not be in the position they are in now. This case proves they still don’t get it. The customer is right even when he isn’t. (And I have received so far eight congratulatory phone calls thanking me for my tireless work. I’m pleased but I don’t need the credit. This was a group effort. An industry that hates each other came together as a group to fight this. This is a rare time when the system worked. Friends and family got involved too.)