Monday, May 19, 2014YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman are pressing their case for trade remedies targeting companies that illegally dump steel products on the U.S. market to the detriment of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) manufactured by Vallourec Star and other companies operating locally.
Brown, D-Ohio, and Portman, R-Ohio, led a group of 57 senators in calling on the Obama Administration to protect American steel manufacturers and the jobs they support. Brown’s and Portman’s efforts come in advance of a major trade case before the U.S. Department of Commerce that involves tubular goods used for domestic oil and gas exploration, especially shale, and are produced by Vallourec, Wheatland Tube in Warren, TMK IPSCO in Brookfield and U.S. Steel in Lorain. The U.S. Department of Commerce is to decide July 8 whether to apply trade remedies on unfairly dumped Korean steel imports.
In a letter send to U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, the lawmakers expressed their concerns regarding the preliminary determination in the antidumping investigation. “This case has nationwide economic implications, and any final determination must be based on accurate data and objective methodologies,” the lawmakers write. “We ask that you fully consider the domestic industry’s allegations and take action against any unfair dumping to the fullest extent of the law.”
Steel produced for the U.S. energy market, such as OCTG, accounts for approximately 10% of domestic steel production and nearly 8,000 American jobs across the country. Imports of OCTG have doubled since 2008 and increased by 61% thus far in 2014 compared to 2013. By some accounts, OCTG imports represent 50% of the pipes used for gas and oil drilling in the United States.
The Commerce Department is investigating the dumping, or intentional underselling, of OCTG into the U.S. market from nine countries, including India, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam. A preliminary found that the imports of eight countries were dumped in American markets, resulting in duties of about 3% to 118% being levied on their OCTG imports. The Commerce Department failed, however, to identify South Korea as dumping despite a majority of OCTG imports deriving from there, and strong concerns being raised about their practices violating trade rules. South Korean OCTG imports, in fact, have recently increased by 40% and account for 20% of U.S. consumption, according to the senators.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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