The Mexican government reported that it will preliminarily maintain antidumping duties on imports of carbon steel pipes with longitudinal seams from China, ranging from $356 to $618 per metric ton (mt) implemented in 2018.
The duties implemented in March 2018 range from $0.356 per kilogram ($356/mt) for imports from Huludao City Steel Pipe Industrial; of $0.506 per kilogram ($506/mt) for Tianjin Huilitong Steel Tube; of $0.537 per kilogram ($537/mt) for Tianjin United Steel Pipe.
For pipes manufactured by the companies Tangshan Zhengyuan Pipeline, Tianjin Youfa Dezhong Steel Pipe, Tianjin Youfa Steel Pipe, Tianjin Youfa Steel Pipe Group and the other exporters in China of $0.618 per kilogram ($618/mt).
The product is imported into Mexico through tariff items 7306.19.99, 7306.30.03, 7306.30.04, 7306.30.99 and 7306.61.01 of the Tariff of the Law of General Import and Export Taxes (TIGIE).
According to the Mexican government, the companies Forza SPL, Pytco and Tubería Laguna requested an investigation for price discrimination in 2016. At that time, they contributed 40.2 percent of national production.
Other companies in Mexico that produce the product investigated and that supported the research are Ternium, Peasa, Tubacero, Procarsa, Perfiles y Herrajes, Regiomontana, Prolamsa and Arco Metal. These companies contributed 16.2 percent of production. Two other companies that did not support the investigation were Conduit and Lámina y Placa Comercial (Grupo Villacero), which contributed 3.4 percent of production.
According to the Mexican government, companies interested in the procedure will have a period of 20 business days to present arguments and complementary evidence. Although he also reported that since the beginning of the administrative procedure to examine the validity and the ex officio review of the countervailing duties, in March of this year, companies and the Chinese government were invited to participate, however there was no response.