Steel Industry News
U.S. Hits China With Steel Penalty
Wednesday, 09, June 2010
In a move that could escalate trade tensions between the U.S. and China, the Department of Commerce found that Chinese drill-pipe makers were selling roughly $200 million of pipes in the U.S. for less than their market value.The ruling, while preliminary, places a 15.7% subsidy on finished and unfinished drill pipe, mainly used for oil and natural gas extraction, coming into U.S. ports beginning Wednesday. The subsidy is applied to the selling price of the pipe, not including ocean freight or insurance.
The ruling marks another win for the domestic steel industry against Chinese-made industrial imports. In the last six months, the U.S. has ruled that China illegally dumped $2.8 billion of tubular steel, one of the largest cases ever, in the country. In another case this year, the U.S. found that the Chinese dumped seamless pipe steel.The U.S. and China have been battling over trade as Washington bristles at the pace of China's industrial production and at its monetary policy, which tends to make Chinese exports cheaper.
