The US International Trade Commission (ITC) made an affirmative preliminary injury determination Friday in the antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) from China. The vote was unanimous (6 – 0).
As a result of the ITC's determination, these investigations will continue and the US Department of Commerce (DOC) will conduct full-scale antidumping and countervailing duty investigations of OCTG from China.
Within the next three weeks, the ITC will publish its written determination which will contain an explanation of its decision.
According to the fact sheet released by the US DOC and ITC follwing the initiation of the AD and CVD investigations of Chinese OCTG on April 29, from 2006 to 2008, imports of OCTG from China increased 203 percent by volume. China exported a total of 1,993,609 mt of OCTG to the US in 2008, valued at $2.6 billion. These figures compare to 780,831 mt or $749.6 million exported in 2007, and 657,740 mt or $632.2 million exported in 2006.
The below chart illustrates the sharp spike of Chinese OCTG imports in the second half of 2008 and in early 2009, particularly in the September 2008 through January 2009 period. However, critics of the trade case against Chinese OCTG say that the surge in OCTG imports from China in the latter part of 2008 was a direct result of excessive price increases made by US OCTG producers in June of 2008.
The alleged dumping margins in this case range from 36.94 percent to 99.14 percent, and the subsidy rate is above de minimis. The DOC is scheduled to make its preliminary CVD determination on July 2, and its preliminary AD determination on September 15.
