Circular Welded Pipe Imports from China Get Anti-Dumping Duties

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS213147+04-Jan-2008+BW20080104

Illegally Subsidized
WASHINGTON--(Business Wire)--News From USW: Six U.S. pipe makers and the United Steelworkers
(USW) today applauded the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) for its
preliminary finding that Chinese producers of circular welded pipe are
dumping below-cost product in the United States.

The Commerce Department will impose anti-dumping duties on China
pipe exports at an average rate of 25.67 percent. Individual company
margins for China producers range from zero to 51.34 percent. These
anti-dumping duties are in addition to the anti-subsidy duties imposed
by the DOC on Nov. 6, 2007, when it was determined that the government
of China was illegally subsidizing pipe makers.

Circular welded steel pipe products, known as standard and
structural pipe, are used in plumbing applications, HVAC systems,
sprinkler systems, fencing and construction.

The pipe imports subject to the petition against China have surged
from 10,000 tons in 2002 to more than 750,000 tons in 2007 -- a 6,900
percent increase. The result has been the loss of 500 American jobs,
or about 25 percent of the total work force employed in this segment
of the domestic pipe industry.

Once the new tariffs are published in the Federal Register,
typically within five days, importers will be required to post bonds
in the amount of the dumping margins calculated by Commerce. The DOC
has also applied critical circumstances, determining that this duty
could be applied retroactively by 90 days.

The trade suit, filed in parallel with the International Trade
Commission (ITC) and the DOC on June 7, 2007 by the 'Ad Hoc Coalition
for Fair Pipe Imports From China and the United Steelworkers.' The
coalition includes: Allied Tube & Conduit, IPSCO Tubulars, Inc.,
Northwest Pipe Company, Sharon Tube Company, Western Tube & Conduit
Corporation, and Wheatland Tube Company. On July 20, 2007, the ITC
made a finding that circular welded pipe from China is causing
material injury to the U.S. industry.

FULL story at link.

first it was the koreans and now it`s the chinese