The Obama administration imposed duties on steel pipe from South Korea and eight other nations in a victory for U.S. Steel Corp and the United Steelworkers union, which said they were hurt by unfair competition from overseas.
The U.S. Steel Corp flag flies in front of their headquarters building in Pittsburgh in this file photo. (AP photo)
U.S. Steel shares rose 3.2% in New York trading.
The US Commerce Department set duties from 9.89% to 15.75% on Korean pipe, which is used in oil drilling, according to a fact sheet released today by the agency. Last year, pipe worth $818 million was exported to the US from South Korea. Duties ranging from 2.05% to 118.32% also were imposed on pipe from the other nations, which sent $722 million worth of pipe to the US last year.
“We applaud their decision to prevent further gamesmanship of our laws and to secure our nation’s economy,” US Steel chief executive officer Mario Longhi said today in a statement.
The Commerce Department determined the steel pipe had been sold in the US below cost, or dumped, in violation of international trade rules, after the steel industry filed a complaint.
The duties must be paid on the imports immediately, though will be refunded if the US International Trade Commission determines that American producers weren’t harmed by the imports, a ruling scheduled in the coming months.
“This practice has already caused serious harm to our domestic steel industry,” Steelworkers president Leo Gerard said today in a statement. “Plants are being idled, workers are losing jobs and communities are suffering.”
Decision overturned
Today’s finding overturns a Commerce Department decision in February not to set anti-dumping duties on the Korean imports. U.S. Steel, the nation’s largest metal producer, and the union said that determination was miscalculated, and they lobbied for penalty duties.
U.S. Steel rose 86 cents to $27.64 at 4.15pm New York time, and touched $28,30, a 5.7% increase, after the decision was disclosed. The shares are down 6.3% this year.
Officials from the South Korean embassy in Washington declined to comment publicly.
“Today’s ruling is an important step toward ensuring a level playing field for our workers and businesses,” Ohio senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, said in a joint statement with Rob Portman, his Republican colleague.
U.S. Steel has a major manufacturing facility for the goods in Lorain, Ohio, about 48 kilometres west of Cleveland.
Hyundai, Nexteel
Pipe exported by Hyundai Hysco Co will be subject to 15.75% duty, and products from Nexteel Co will face a 9.89% duty. Other Korean manufacturers will pay a duty of 12.82%.
“I’m not sure that they’re big enough to have a big difference,” Michelle Applebaum, an independent steel consultant and adjunct professor at Lake Forest College in Illinois, said in a telephone interview. “Nine to 15%, it will give some relief, but considering how much overcapacity there is in the global pipe market it’s a better-than-nothing kind of solution.”
The other nations shipping pipe subject to duties are India, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam.
The US set duties as high as 118.32% on products from WSP in Thailand, and as low as 2.05% on GVN Fuels Ltd of India. The Commerce Department also set anti-subsidy duties as high as 19.11% on steel goods from India and as high as 15.89 percent on the products from Turkey.
Cash deposits
The US said it will require the foreign producers to pay cash deposits on the imports. The International Trade Commission is scheduled to issue its decision on Korea and Taiwan by the end of September and the remaining countries in late August.
The dispute united industry and union leaders who pressed their case with lawmakers, President Barack Obama’s administration and the media in recent months. They say they’ve been especially concerned about a surge in imports of the Korean-made goods, which increased about 45% in volume and 19% in value from 2011 to 2013, according to Commerce Department data.
U.S. Steel on June 2 said it was closing two plants, with a total of 260 workers, in Pennsylvania and Texas because of foreign competition. U.S. Steel is the biggest domestic producer of pipes and tubes sold to oil and gas companies, and the sales of the products represented 48% of its 2013 operating income.