Turkish steel pipe producer Borusan Mannesmann has told SteelOrbis that the company's US oil country tubular goods (OCTG) investment in Houston, Texas remains on track within the projected schedule, with the threading facility already being commissioned. The company said that the trial runs on pipe production have started and that they expect to start commercial production in May this year, with all facilities ramping up to full capacity in the third quarter of the current year.
Borusan Mannesmann announced in late 2012 that, in response to the significant growth of shale gas production in North America, it decided to set up an OCTG pipe facility with an investment of $150 million and an annual output capacity of 300,000 mt to meet the demand driven by shale gas and oil production.
Borusan Mannesmann also said that the company has made no major changes in its sales and shipment plans, since it expects no negative impact from the US' antidumping duty investigation regarding OCTG imports from nine countries, adding that the preliminary results were in line with their expectations. Borusan Mannesmann's OCTG sales prices in the US stand at quite good levels given the market conditions. The company stated that, independently of the final results of the antidumping investigation, OCTG sales from Turkey to the US will decrease when its Houston facility starts to offer services to the whole US market.
In February this year, the US Department of Commerce (US DOC) announced the preliminary results of its antidumping duty investigation regarding OCTG imports from India, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam, issuing a negative preliminary determination for OCTG imports from South Korea and calculating a zero preliminary dumping margin for Borusan Mannesmann. The final results of the investigation are expected to be announced in July this year.
