U.S. will impose duties on Chinese pipe

U.S. will impose duties on Chinese pipe    The U.S. International Trade Commission said Wednesday that it will issue a countervailing duty on imports of Chinese pipe used for oil drilling.
   All six commissioners voted in favor of the duty, saying U.S. industry is materially injured or threatened with material injury by reason of imports oil country tubular goods.
   The ITC took the action after receiving petitions from Maverick Tube Corp., V&M Star, and Tubular Corp. of America, all based in Houston; U.S. Steel Corp. of Pittsburgh; TMK IPSCO of Camanche, Iowa; Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel of Pueblo, Colo.; Wheatland Tube of Wheatland, Pa.; and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union in Pittsburgh.
   The ITC said those companies produced 3 million short tons of pipe valued at $6.2 billion in 2008 and that apparent U.S. consumption in
2008 was 6.7 million short tons valued at $11.6 billion. It said 2.2 million short tons valued a $2.8 million were imported from China.
   The American Iron and Steel Institute hailed the decision.
   U.S. steelmakers “have been clearly injured by high levels of unfairly traded oil country tubular goods (steel pipe used primarily in the oil and gas industries) into the U.S. market, beginning in 2006 and continuing through the first half of 2009,” said Thomas J. Gibson, president and chief executive officer of the institute.
   “At a time when the nation is struggling with double-digit unemployment, full and strict enforcement of our laws against dumped and subsidized imports of steel and other manufactured products from China is essential to maintaining a viable U.S. manufacturing sector in the United States,' he added.
   The Commerce Department said in November countervailing duties of between 10.36 percent and 15.78 percent could be imposed on Chinese steel pipe if the ITC decided that the domestic steel industry was being injured by unfair subsidies.
   The ITC said a public report containing its views and information developed during the investigation will be available after Feb. 3.
   The Xinhua news agency said China has expressed “strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition” to the ITC ruling.
   It said an unidentified official from the Ministry of Commerce issued an online statement stating that shrinking demand for oil amid the global financial crises, not Chinese imports, was the root cause of the problems for American companies and demand for oil well pipes would increase gradually as the international crude and natural gas prices rise.