On Friday, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) made affirmative preliminary injury determinations in the antidumping (AD) investigations of OCTG from India, Korea, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations of OCTG from India and Turkey. Following the determinations, two of the US' leading industry groups issued their respective responses.
The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) applauded the affirmative preliminary injury vote by the International Trade Commission (ITC). Thomas J. Gibson, president and CEO of AISI, said, "We are very pleased that the ITC has taken this significant first step in making a preliminary determination that these imports are causing material injury to the domestic steel industry. The US laws against unfair trade exist to counter market-distorting practices - like dumping and subsidies -- and to restore conditions of fair trade. US companies and their workers deserve to have a fair shake, and we applaud today's vote as an important move towards providing US steel producers relief from unfairly traded OCTG imports."
Meanwhile, the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS), said: "While AIIS, acknowledges that some overly aggressive suppliers had created an inventory overhang in the US market, the domestic OCTG industry is profitable, investing and growing its capacity in response to increased oil and gas drilling in the US. With this vote, the International Trade Commission commissioners ignored these simple facts and granted trade protection to domestic steel producers for at least a year, pending the outcome of the final decision on injury at the ITC next year."
"Put simply, this decision by the ITC can be expected to disrupt longstanding supply relationships and reflects an abusive use of the trade laws. With a profitable and growing industry in the US, along with growing demand for OCTG from all sources, domestic and imported, this is not an industry that needs trade protection," said David Phelps, president of AIIS.
"We are concerned that in using the trade laws to disrupt a number of legitimate, responsible and long term supply relationships, the ITC has allowed domestic industry OCTG producers to misuse the trade laws again. While most expect the facts should result in a no-injury determination at the final phase of the investigation at the ITC, this decision...will disrupt needed trade channels for over a year," said John Foster, Chairman of AIIS.
