News Room - Steel Industry

Posted on 10 Sep 2009

US slaps duties on Chinese steel pipes

The United States made a preliminary decision Wednesday to slap tariffs as high as 31 per cent on steel pipes from China following claims they were backed by unfair subsidies.

 

The Commerce Department said it had "preliminarily determined" that Chinese producers or exporters of carbon or alloy tubular steel products used in oil and gas wells "have received net countervailable subsidies ranging from 10.90 to 30.69 per cent".

 

"As a result of this preliminary determination, Commerce will instruct US Customs and Border Protection to collect a cash deposit or bond based on these preliminary rates," the department said in a statement.

 

From 2006 to 2008, imports of such pipes - officially known as oil country tubular goods (OCTG) - from China increased 203 per cent by volume, the statement said. They were valued at $US2.6 billion ($A3.02 billion) last year.

 

The department pursued an investigation into the case after complaints from various US industry groups and unions, including the United States Steel Corporation, and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union.

 

The department will issue a "final determination" on the issue in November, the statement.

 

"If Commerce makes an affirmative final determination, and the US International Trade Commission makes an affirmative final determination that imports of OCTG from China materially injure, or threaten material injury to, the domestic industry, Commerce will issue a countervailing duty order," the statement said.

 

The decision came as US President Barack Obama faces pressure to slap punitive duties on tyre imports from China to save jobs at home.

 

The quasi-judicial US International Trade Commission proposed tariffs of up to 55 per cent on Chinese passenger and light truck tyres based on a petition led by the United Steelworkers Union that the tyre imports had tripled since 2004, forcing plant shutdowns and the loss of 5,100 jobs.

 

Obama is required to make the decision just ahead of hosting Chinese President Hu Jintao at the Group of 20 summit on September 24-25.