USW Joins Oil Tubular Trade Case Against China Imports

Seven domestic producers file petition representing 6,000 production workers

Contact: Gary Hubbard 202-778-4384; 202-256-8125

Washington, DC (Apr. 8) — Seven U.S. oil country tubular goods (OCTG) producers and the United Steelworkers (USW) today filed an antidumping and countervailing duty trade case against China imports with the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). 

OCTG represents welded and stainless steel pipes that are used to extract oil or gas from a drill well.  The USW and the domestic companies allege that Chinese producers benefit from massive government subsidies and dumping margins ranging from 40 to 90 percent. According to the USW, the increase in Chinese imports of OCTG are made worse by the global recession that increases the impact on good jobs in the steel and pipe manufacturing sector.

USW International President Leo W. Gerard declared: “There are more than 2,000 workers currently on layoff at companies making OCTG. We cannot let China get away with targeting these family-supportive and skilled jobs through predatory trade practices.  China must be stopped from cheating on trade with illegally dumped and subsidized products that destroy our ability to drill for oil and gas in the U.S.”

The USW is the largest union representing production workers employed by the petitioner companies that make OCTG. The total employment of OCTG is estimated at 6,000 workers.

Tom Conway, USW  International Vice President, who oversees the union’s pipe sector, says: “Because of the astonishing volume of unfairly-traded drill pipe from China, we have large numbers of laid off workers at world class production facilities that need strict enforcement of our trade laws before it’s too late and we lose the capacity to make this critical product.”

In addition to the USW as co-petitioner, the seven producers of the OCTG petition are:  U.S. Steel Corp., Pittsburgh, Pa.; Maverick Tube Corp., Hickman, Ark.; Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel, Pueblo, Colo.; TMK IPSCO, Downers Grove, Ill.; V&M Star, LLP, Houston, Tx.; V&M TCA, Houston, Tx.; and Wheatland Tube Corp., Beachwood, Ohio.

Rob Simon, Vice President and General Manager of Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel Mills, said, “Dumped and subsidized imports from China have tripled from 750,000 tons in 2006 to 2.2 million tons in 2008 and have continued increasing in the first quarter of this year.  These imports significantly undersold our producers and have created a huge inventory build up in the U.S. market.”
 
According to Roger Schagrin, trade counsel for the USW’s petition, China imports of OCTG pipe from China are subject to very high antidumping and countervailing duties in Canada, the world’s second largest market.  Schagrin also said the European Union (E.U.) today made a preliminary dumping determination of margins ranging from 35 to 51 percent against China imports of seamless pipe.  China exported over 600,000 tons to the E.U. last year, much of which China could potentially now shift towards the U.S.  

Under U.S. trade law, the ITC is to make a preliminary injury determination no later than May 26, 2009. The DOC is expected to issue a preliminary subsidy finding by Sept. 8, 2009, and a preliminary dumping finding by Nov. 6, 2009.