U.S. probes steel pipe imports from India, eight other countries | Reuters

U.S. probes steel pipe imports from India, eight other countries | Reuters:

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In 2010, the United States slapped duties on imports of OCTG from China after they hit about $2.8 billion in 2008. That created an opening for the other foreign suppliers.

The latest case targets South Korea, which exported about $831 million worth of the pipe to the United States last year, as well as India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and Ukraine.

U.S. producers are asking for anti-dumping duties as high as 240 percent on India, 158 percent on South Korea, 118 percent on Thailand and 111 percent on Vietnam to offset what they say is below market pricing, and lesser but still hefty duties on the other five countries.

For two countries, Turkey and India, U.S. producers are seeking additional countervailing duties to offset alledged government subsidies.

The Commerce Department will make a preliminary decision on countervailing duties in September and on anti-dumping duties in December. Final decisions will come in 2014.

U.S. companies seeking the relief include U.S. Steel(X.N), which told the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) at a hearing on Tuesday that it spent $2.1 billion in 2007 to boost its OCTG production by buying a smaller manufacturer.

But "for three years now, I have heard the same tale from our salesmen: 'Imports are underselling us. We must lower our prices or our customers will go elsewhere,'" Doug Matthews, a senior vice president at U.S. Steel, told the panel.

Under the U.S. system,