TPT May 2011

G lobal M arketplace

applications for the new metals. On 1 March, nhan1st wrote, “The idea having mouldable alloys is great, but there seems to be a fact that they’re missing. Even if we get that kind of alloy, they never state how light it will be. A main property of plastic that we desire is its light weight. Who’s to say that the weight of the alloy won’t [cancel out] its strength?” Trade Reversing itself, the WTO backs China against the US on steel pipe duties On 11 March, the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization negated key parts of a ruling that had largely supported the American position on a Chinese complaint about US duties on imports of lightweight, rectangular steel pipe. Finding otherwise after a series of anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations, the appeals judges determined that “the US acted inconsistently” as to global trade rules. The jubilant Chinese mission to the WTO promptly issued a statement from Geneva that the decision “strikes at the heart of how the US has applied countervailing duties to Chinese products.” The Chinese take the reversal to mean that the WTO has conclusively established that “the US acts unlawfully in the methods by which it calculates and imposes countervailing duties on imports from China.” To recap the dispute, in July 2008 the US imposed levies on $200 million of the steel pipe from China, South Korea and Mexico. Chinese exporters face countervailing duties, intended to offset subsidies to the home industry, of as much as 200%. They also face anti-dumping duties, which compensate for goods sold overseas at prices below those at home, of as much as 265%. This marked the second time that the US imposed duties on Chinese imports on similar grounds, following by a month a case involving another category of steel pipe. In October 2010, WTO judges upheld the right of the US to impose both sets of tariffs on the Chinese imports. The initial panel confirmed the right of an importer to compensate for subsidies and under-pricing by setting duties on goods from non-market economy countries. China had challenged both the method employed by the US in calculating the levies and its application of two sets of damages: anti-dumping tariffs for unfairly priced goods and countervailing duties for subsidised products. “The imposition of double remedies is inconsistent” with global trade rules, the Appellate Body said in its 228-page report. The judges’ reasoning and their conclusion are summarised in the last four pages, which may be read at www.wto.org › Sounding a quite different note from his Chinese counterparts, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement, “I am deeply troubled by [the WTO reversal]. It appears to be a clear case of overreaching by the Appellate Body. We are reviewing the findings closely in order to understand fully their implications.”

Technology Innovative alloys, stronger than steel, can be moulded into virtually any shape A team of materials scientists at Yale University has reported the development of a set of materials that are stronger than steel but readily mouldable. According to team leader Jan Schroers, the new materials are derived from several different metals, including zirconium, nickel, titanium and copper. They cost about the same as high-end steel but can be processed as cheaply as plastic. As announced by Yale (New Haven, Connecticut) on 28 February, the researchers found that some recently developed bulk metallic glasses, or BMGs – metal alloys with randomly arranged atoms rather than the standard crystalline metallic structure – can be blowmoulded. The new technique has been used to fabricate biomedical implants, gyroscopes, seamless miniature resonators for microelectromechanical systems, metallic bottles, and watch cases, all moulded in under a minute and exhibiting twice the strength of steel. “This could enable a whole new paradigm for shaping metals,” said Dr Schroers, who received his training at the University of Aachen, in Germany. “The superior properties of BMGs relative to plastics and typical metals, combined with the ease, economy and precision of blow moulding, have the potential to impact society just as much as the development of synthetic plastics... in the last century.” If the new materials live up to this billing, the prospects for industry are exciting. The complex shapes achievable with BMGs, at no sacrifice of strength and durability, would be impossible with the use of regular metals. In addition, blow moulding of BMGs permits combining three separate steps in traditional metal processing – shaping, joining, finishing – into one. The Yale scientists blow moulded the alloys at low temperatures and low pressures, where the bulk metallic glass softens dramatically and flows as easily as plastic but without crystallising. For careful control and maintenance of the ideal temperature for blow moulding, the BMGs were shaped in a vacuum or in fluid. “The trick is to avoid friction typically present in other forming techniques,” Dr Schroers said. “Blow moulding completely eliminates friction, allowing us to create any number of complicated shapes, down to the nanoscale.” › A prompt online response to the Yale story, posted on the Popular Science website, seized on an omission that could limit

A new alloy that is stronger than steel and far more readily mouldable is being developed in the US

Dorothy Fabian, Features Editor (USA)

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