USW Supports Duties on Welded API Line Pipe
WASHINGTON -- The United Steelworkers union has joined a petition calling on the U.S. Department Commerce and International Trade Commission to impose anti-dumping and countervailing duties on imports of welded API line pipe from South Korea and Turkey.
The product is used often in oil and natural gas pipelines.
Imports of such products from the two countries were valued at $708 million in 2012 and $601 million in 2013. The union, along with steelmakers TMK IPSCO (which operates a plant in Brookfield, Ohio),American Cast Iron Pipe Co., Energex, Maverick Tube Corp., Northwest Pipe Co., Stupp Corp., Tex-Tube Co. and Welspun Tubular LLC USA, are calling for duties on carbon and alloy welded API line pipe up to 24 inches in diameter.
"These countries are exploiting the growing oil and gas drilling industry in the United States to try to tilt the playing field in their direction," said Leo W. Gerard, USW International president, in a prepared statement. "They are attempting to squeeze American companies out of this growing market by unfairly subsidizing their own steel producers and by forcing their products onto our shores at below-market prices.”
The ITC is expected to issue a preliminary determination by Dec. 1, while preliminary decisions from the DOC are likely by next spring.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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