Steel Products Prices North America

Structural Tube Trade Case Filed

July 23, 2015

A unfair trade case was filed by US pipe and tube producers on Tuesday against makers and exporters of heavy-walled rectangular steel pipes and tubes from South Korea, Mexico and Turkey.

The product in question is commonly called “structural tubing” and is used in construction, transportation and farm applications.

The alleged dumping margins filed by the petitioners are:

South Korea 79.8%
Mexico 23.4%
Turkey 96.1 – 108.2%

A subsidy investigation was also requested regarding the Turkish imports.

According to the petition, imports of structural tubing between 2012 and 2014 have grown 48 percent from South Korea to 83,326 tons, 22.9 percent from Mexico to 72,345 tons and 83.2 percent from Turkey to 62,035 tons.

The petitioners are Atlas Tube, a division of JMC Steel Group; Bull Moose Tube; Hannibal Industries; Independence Tube; Maruichi American; Searing Industries; Southland Tube, and Vest Inc. EXLTUBE, another petitioner, excluded Mexico. They are represented by Schagrin Associates.

If the US Department of Commerce moves forward on the investigation, a preliminary decision on countervailing will occur on or around October 19 and on antidumping on December 28, 2015.

The next step would be a preliminary determination by the ITC on September 4 on whether there is reasonable indication that the domestic industry was materially injured by the imports from the three countries.