Monday, July 14, 2014WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman applauded a Commerce Department ruling Friday on the dumping of imports in certain Oil Country Tubular Goods into the United States.
Following months of efforts by the senators to urge the U.S. Commerce Department to crack down on countries that dump their steel in the U.S. market, the department ruled that it would do so by levying trade tariffs against the nine countries, including South Korea.
The product is used for domestic oil exploration, especially shale. 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 in more than 22 states. U.S. producers, however, are increasingly losing sales to foreign competitors because imports of OCTG have doubled since 2008 and increased by 61% thus far in 2014 compared to 2013, according to numbers provided by the senators’ offices.
The nine petitioning companies included JMC Steel in Warren, Vallourec Star in Youngstown, TMK IPSCO in Brookfield and U.S. Steel in Lorain.
Commerce investigated the dumping of OCTG into the U.S. market from nine countries, including India, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam. The department also examined whether India and Turkey are unfairly subsidizing their OCTG producers.
Before its final ruling, Commerce found that India had unfairly subsidized its OCTG producers, and that the imports of eight countries were dumped in American markets. This resulted in duties of up to 118% being levied on their OCTG imports. Commerce did not identify South Korea as dumping despite a majority of OCTG imports deriving from the country. Because South Korea has one of the world’s largest steel industries but no domestic OCTG market, its OCTG imports have recently increased by 40% and account for 20 percent of U.S. consumption.
Last month, Brown and Portman led a group of a group of 57 senators in sending a letter to Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker requesting the department closely verify and further analyze the information submitted by the Korean producers to ensure its accuracy.
“Today’s ruling is an important step toward ensuring a level playing field for our workers and businesses,” Brown, D-Ohio, said. “Ohio’s steel tube manufacturers are among the strongest in the world. But their ability to compete is undermined when countries violate trade law by subsidizing their producers or when exporters dump their products in the U.S. market. By levying trade tariffs against countries like South Korea, we can protect local jobs and strengthen our economy, creating new jobs along the way.”
“I’m pleased with today’s ruling reaffirming that American manufacturers deserve to compete on a level playing field,” Portman, R-Ohio, said. “Ohio pipe and tube companies are among the best in the world, but we must stand up to foreign competitors who break trade rules at the expense of Ohio workers.”
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-13 Ohio, also praised the ruling, “which confirms what we have believed for some time -- that a number of countries are dumping their products into the United States and taking good-paying jobs away from American workers, including those at Warren’s Energex Tube, TMK IPSCO, and Vallourec Star,” he said.
"Today is a good day for America’s steelworkers and OCTG producers, and also a good day for the U.S. economy,” added Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing. “The outpouring of bipartisan support from Congress and the thousands of workers who took the time to make their voices heard underscored the importance of this decision. We hope the International Trade Commission will come to the same, fact-based conclusion."
The ITC will next determine whether the petitioning OCTG producers and their workers have been injured or are threatened with injury as a result of the dumping. The commission is scheduled to hold a hearing on the issue Tuesday.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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