The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) on Friday ruled that imports of certain oil country tubular goods used in the production of natural gas and oil are being dumped into the U.S. market. The Commission, by a 5-0 vote, puts duties on imports of these tubular goods from South Korea, India, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam. “The ITC made the right call today; steelworkers and manufacturers have clearly suffered. We hope this decision will boost the prospects for steel jobs and companies in this important market serving America’s energy independence efforts,” said Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) President Scott Paul in a statement.
Earlier this year, AAM organized #SaveOurSteelJobs rallies nationwide to highlight the importance of steelmaking to the U.S. economy. Events were held in several cities, including Lone Star, Texas, where United States Steel Corp. produces oil country tubular goods, with workers demanding a level playing field and full enforcement of the nation’s trade laws. United Steelworkers (USW) International President Leo W. Gerard issued a statement following the vote: “Today’s vote puts our domestic OCTG market one step closer to a level playing field for those products and the men and women who make them. It’s been a long road to get here and the effort is far from over.” Also commenting was US Steel’s President and CEO Mario Longhi: “The International Trade Commission’s diligent and conscientious investigation and affirmative final vote clearly recognized that these six countries, which represent more than 90% of the unfairly traded imports that entered the U.S. market in 2013, imported OCTG using unfair methods and market distorting pricing. The dumped imports from all nine countries have caused material injury to the American market and the American worker. Orders have been reduced, mills idled and jobs have been lost.”
US Steel purchased then Dallas-based Lone Star Technologies, parent of Lone Star Steel, in 2007. It opened a oil field tubular steel technology center in Houston in 2011. – Robert Francis