OCTG producers form trade association to promote domestic industry

Luca Zanotti, Tenaris US president, was elected to be USOMA’s first chairman.

“As American energy production is a matter of national security, we must promote and develop reliable, domestic supply chains, such as a world-class US OCTG industry,’ Zanotti said in a statement.

Imports account for about half of the US market, Zanotti said. Many foreign producers do not have their own local markets for OCTG. Thus, the US market is an attractive destination for their products.

“The US industry can replace these imports and create thousands of high-paying jobs in American OCTG plants and in the American steel plants that supply their hot rolled coils, while reducing the carbon footprint,” Zanotti added.

Veteran trade attorney Roger Schagrin of Schagrin Associates will serve as USOMA’s general counsel.

“Our goal is to level the playing field for the US OCTG industry and bring OCTG imports down to market shares aligned with basic steel products. At a time when US trade and climate policy is focusing on decarbonization, it is important that US OCTG manufacturers offer exploration and production companies domestically manufactured, reliable, low-GHG products,” Schagrin commented.