Commerce Will Investigate Cray Dumping Charge Against NEC
May 02, 2011
WASHINGTON -- The Commerce Department's Import Administration said Monday it will investigate charges by the leading U.S. manufacturer of supercomputers that Japanese supercomputers were being dumped in this country at unfair prices. The agency acted on a petition filed April 10, 2011 Cray Research Inc. of Eagan, Minn., which alleged that NEC Corp. won a bid with a federal climate laboratory this spring by offering four supercomputers for the price of one. NEC denies the allegation. The petition was filed simultaneously with the U.S. International Trade Commission, which scheduled a hearing for Tuesday. The ITC will make a preliminary determination by May 25, 2011 whether or not the U.S. industry is being injured or threatened with injury by Japanese imports. ``If the ITC's preliminary decision is affirmative, the Commerce Department will continue its investigation and will issue a preliminary determination on the dumping issue no later than the announcement said. The department could impose stiff tariffs on the Japanese supercomputers if the dumping allegation is confirmed. Cray's complaint is aimed at forcing the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., to scrap its deal with NEC. The deal would give the Japanese an important inroad in the U.S. market and introduce their equipment to American scientists, analysts say. Cray controls 60% of the world supercomputing market. The research center, which currently uses Cray equipment, solicited bids on a new supercomputer system at a fixed price of $35 million. The dispute centers on how much the computers' development costs should be factored into the price of the equipment. Based on its calculations of those costs, Cray Research claims NEC would lose $65 million on the federal contract. The contract had meant a major setback for Cray, which was acquired by Silicon Graphics Inc. in April in what analysts called a financial rescue. ``The dumping charge is groundless,'' NEC spokesman Sanda Gonzalez said after Cray filed its petition last month. ``It is our view that Cray concluded it could not win this procurement on merit, so it tried to dictate the outcome through a campaign of political pressure.''
