BETHESDA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May. 18, 2009--
USEC Inc. (NYSE:USU) and AREVA announced today that they have agreed to
settle several pending appeals and administrative proceedings arising
from an antidumping order imposed on imports of French low enriched
uranium (LEU) by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) in 2002. The
parties to the settlement are USEC Inc. and its subsidiary, United
States Enrichment Corporation, and Eurodif S.A. and its affiliates,
AREVA NC and AREVA NC Inc.
Under the terms of the settlement, the parties will immediately withdraw
or request dismissal of all pending appeals and DOC proceedings. This is
expected to bring to an end all pending litigation and administrative
proceedings regarding DOC’s 2002 antidumping duty order, which now is
expected to remain in place until at least the next five-year “sunset
review” in 2012.
“It is now time to put seven years of litigation behind us and move
forward,” said Peter Saba, senior vice president, general counsel and
secretary of USEC Inc. “Today’s action eliminates any further resource
drain this case may have on both companies and is a positive step for
both companies, their workers, their customers and their shareholders.”
Under the terms of the settlement, USEC is expected to realize
approximately $70 million (before taxes) from estimated duties deposited
by Eurodif S.A. or its affiliates. The funds are expected to be received
no earlier than the fourth quarter of this year from a U.S. government
program implementing federal legislation, commonly known as the Byrd
Amendment. The Byrd Amendment was repealed effective October 2007, but
permits domestic producers affected by the dumping of foreign
merchandise to seek recoveries from antidumping duties collected on
covered imports through September 2007.
The settlement also provides for a purchase of separative work units
(SWU) by Eurodif in 2009 and 2010 from USEC. The purchase will help
strengthen USEC’s backlog of sales, which is supplied from its
production in Paducah, Ky., and its purchases of LEU downblended from
Russian nuclear weapons material under the Megatons to Megawatts program.
“The terms of this settlement allow USEC to secure additional funds for
our on-going operations and for our investment in the American
Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio, as well as sales that will benefit
our existing enrichment plant in Paducah, Kentucky,” said Saba.
USEC’s original objective in asking the U.S. government to conduct an
antidumping investigation was to protect the U.S. uranium enrichment
industry, its workers and the communities in which they live from
unfairly priced imports. “Today’s settlement resolves this complex
litigation and gives USEC and the U.S. market greater certainty about
the future of the antidumping measures taken by the U.S. government in
this case. We appreciate the strong support we received from the federal
agencies, Congress and the United Steelworkers union throughout this
case,” said Saba.
The settlement is expected to bring an end to litigation that began
almost immediately after the imposition of the antidumping duty order in
2002. Until recently, the litigation was dominated by the question of
whether French LEU sold under SWU contracts should be treated as sales
of services outside the scope of the U.S. antidumping law. In January of
2009, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the U.S. government and USEC,
ruling that DOC had reasonably concluded that such sales were sales of
merchandise covered under the antidumping law.
Even with final resolution of that question by the Supreme Court, a
number of other issues remained subject to appeals that were expected to
continue for at least several more years. A ruling unfavorable to USEC
on some of the outstanding issues could have led to termination of the
antidumping order. Additional appeals had also been brought to challenge
several reviews of French imports conducted by DOC since the order was
first imposed, and further reviews were expected to result in many more
appeals. Taken together, USEC anticipated at least three to five more
years of significant litigation and uncertainty regarding the
application of the antidumping order to imports of French LEU.
USEC Inc., a global energy company, is a leading supplier of enriched
uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power plants.
Forward Looking Statements
This news release contains “forward-looking statements” – that is,
statements related to future events. In this context, forward-looking
statements may address our expected future business and financial
performance, and often contain words such as “expects,” “anticipates,”
“intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “will” and other words of similar
meaning. Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that
are, to different degrees, uncertain. For USEC, particular risks and
uncertainties that could cause our actual future results to differ
materially from those expressed in our forward-looking statements
include, but are not limited to: opposition by third parties to
termination of the litigation and administrative proceedings described
in this press release; uncertainty regarding the willingness of the
applicable courts and agencies to accept requests for such termination;
and the uncertainty regarding the amount and timing of any payments and
refunds that may be made by the U.S. government as a result of
termination of the litigation and proceedings, including the possibility
that such payments may be less than the amounts USEC expects to receive
or take longer to receive; failure of USEC’s counterparties for any
reason to meet their obligations; and other risks and uncertainties
discussed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
including our Annual Report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form
10-Q. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements
except as required by law.
Source: USEC Inc.
USEC Inc.
Investors: Steven Wingfield (301) 564-3354
Media:
Elizabeth Stuckle (301) 564-3399
