The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has released the scope of the products which are covered by the antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations of OCTG from China.
The ITC released the following definition of the products considered "certain" oil country tubular goods ("OCTG") in these investigations: Certain oil country tubular goods comprise hollow steel products of circular cross section, including only oil well casing and tubing, of iron (other than cast iron) or steel (both carbon and alloy), whether seamless or welded, whether or not conforming to American Petroleum Institute ("API") or non-API specifications, whether finished or unfinished (including green tubes and limited service OCTG products), as covered by subheadings 7304.29, 7305.20, and 7306.29 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS). The scope does not cover casing or tubing containing 10.5 percent or more by weight of chromium, or drill pipe.
Notably, as stated above, the scope will include both seamless and welded OCTG.
In other news regarding the OCTG trade case filed by US OCTG producers earlier this week, The American Institute for International Steel (AIIS) released a press release Wednesday which denounced the case. "The domestic industry filing today is regrettable," commented AIIS president David Phelps. "It was market conditions that stimulated the large increase in imports of OCTG in 2008, not unfair trade."
Mr. Phelps went on to argue that it was the unprecedented $800/ton price increase for all pipe and tube products issued by US Steel last June which attracted imports of pipe, especially OCTG, on a large scale, and when the market for OCTG collapsed late in 2008, the imports were already on their way to the US market. "The steel import pipeline for imports outside of NAFTA is at least three months and from China, up to six months. When much of this OCTG, which was ordered during the summer and fall when the market was strong, arrived late in the year, market demand was moribund and excess supply saturated the marketplace," said Phelps.
"We are disappointed that the domestic industry has again tried to blame the realities of the marketplace on imports. Further, should this case be successful and the price of energy rise - as it surely will - the domestic drilling industry will find itself with yet another shortage of OCTG, this time due to an ill-advised government decision to limit supply of a critical product in the critical energy drilling industry," concluded Phelps.