NEW YORK Dec 9 (Reuters) – The U.S. Commerce Department is ratcheting up pressure on some imports of aluminum extrusions, with a significant hike in the discounted duty rate for several Chinese companies.

A document posted on the Commerce Department’s website late on Tuesday showed the government has agreed to increase discounted countervailing duties on aluminum extrusion imports from 38 Chinese companies to 61.35 percent from 9.67 percent for several of them.

The countervailing duty rate for Chinese extruders not qualifying for the discounted amount is 158.96 percent. The increase comes after Commerce raised anti-dumping duties on several Chinese extruders last week, in a victory for their U.S. competitors…