On April 28, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) announced in the Federal Register the preliminary results of its antidumping duty (AD) administrative review for certain seamless carbon and alloy steel standard, line and pressure pipe from China.
As a result of its administrative review covering January 1, 2009 through June 30, 2009, the US DOC has determined the following dumping margins for the respondents:
- Exporter Tianjin Pipe International Economic and Trading Corporation / Producer Tianjin Pipe (Group) Corporation - 32.39 percent;
- Exporter Hengyang Steel Tube Group Int'l Trading Inc. / Producers Hengyang Valin Steel Tube Co., Ltd., and Hengyang Valin MPM Tube Co., Ltd - 91.93 percent;
- Exporter Xigang Seamless Steel Tube Co., Ltd. / Producers Xigang Seamless Steel Tube Co., Ltd., and Wuxi Seamless Special Pipe Co., Ltd. - 62.16 percent;
- Exporter Jiangyin City Changjiang Steel Pipe Co., Ltd. / Producer Jiangyin City Changjiang Steel Pipe Co., Ltd - 62.16 percent;
- Exporter Pangang Group Chengdu Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. / Producer Pangang Group Chengdu Iron & Steel Co., Ltd - 62.16 percent;
- Exporter Yangzhou Lontrin Steel Tube Co., Ltd. / Producer Yangzhou Lontrin Steel Tube Co., Ltd - 62.16 percent;
- Exporter Yangzhou Chengde Steel Tube Co., Ltd. / Producer Yangzhou Chengde Steel Tube Co., Ltd - 62.16 percent;
- China-wide rate - 98.37 percent
The petitioners for the petition filed on September 16, 2009 are the United States Steel Corporation, V&M Star LP, TMK IPSCO, and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union.
On January 7, 2010, US Steel made a critical circumstances allegation with respect to TPCO and Hengyang. After reviewing the record evidence, the DOC preliminarily finds that there is reason to believe or suspect that critical circumstances exist for imports of subject merchandise from Hengyang and the China-wide entity but not for TPCO or the separate rate companies, which includes Xigang.
The DOC also said that the final results of the review are to be issued no later than 135 days from the publication date of the preliminary results, extending the time limit by 60 days compared to the usual process.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, in its preliminary countervailing duty (CVD) review determination on the same product group issued on March 1, the DOC came to the conclusion that mandatory respondents Hengyang and TPCO should receive preliminary net subsidy rates of 12.97 and 11.06 percent respectively. All other Chinese exporters will receive a preliminary net subsidy rate of 12.02 percent. In the same CVD determination, the DOC also preliminarily determined that ‘critical circumstances' exist for all producers/exporters of seamless pipe from China except for TPCO.
On March 19, the DOC announced that it decided to align the CVD and the AD administrative reviews for the product group mentioned and publish their final results on the same day.
The merchandise covered by the investigation is currently classified in the Harmonized Tariff
Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) under item numbers: 7304.19.1020, 7304.19.1030, 7304.19.1045, 7304.19.1060, 7304.19.5020, 7304.19.5050, 7304.31.6050, 7304.39.0016, 7304.39.0020, 7304.39.0024, 7304.39.0028, 7304.39.0032, 7304.39.0036, 7304.39.0040, 7304.39.0044, 7304.39.0048, 7304.39.0052, 7304.39.0056, 7304.39.0062, 7304.39.0068, 7304.39.0072, 7304.51.5005, 7304.51.5060, 7304.59.6000, 7304.59.8010, 7304.59.8015, 7304.59.8020, 7304.59.8025, 7304.59.8030, 7304.59.8035, 7304.59.8040, 7304.59.8045, 7304.59.8050, 7304.59.8055, 7304.59.8060, 7304.59.8065, and 7304.59.8070.