Trade Cases

Commerce: Sizable Chinese pipe subsidies will continue if US duties expire

Written by Laura Miller

September 10, 2024

Imports of certain Chinese pipe products will continue to benefit from significant government subsidies if the US countervailing duty (CVD) order on the imports is allowed to expire.

That’s according to the final results of the US Commerce Department’s third sunset review of the CVD order on circular welded carbon quality steel pipe (more commonly known as standard and structural pipe) from the People’s Republic of China.

A notice in the Federal Register on Monday said Commerce found that revoking or sunsetting the CVD order “would be likely to lead to the continuation or recurrence of countervailable subsidies at the levels” shown in the chart below.

Exporter/manufacturerSubsidy rate
Weifang East Steel Pipe Co.29.83%
Kingland companies48.18%
Shuangjie companies620.08%
All others39.01%

Background

Trade laws require that unfair trade remedies like anti-dumping duties and CVDs are reviewed every five years.

In the US, Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA) and the independent International Trade Commission (ITC) are tasked with this responsibility.

Considering if the duties were allowed to expire or be ‘sunset,’ the ITA determines if the subsidies or duties would reoccur, and the ITC determines if the domestic industry would continue to be injured.

Commerce initiated this sunset review in May. The case was expedited as responses from respondent interested parties were deemed inadequate, while domestic interested parties provided timely notices of their intent to participate.

Those companies include Bull Moose Tube, Maruichi American Corp., Nucor Tubular Products, and Zekelman Industries, all of which are domestic producers of standard and/or structural pipe.

The ITC voted in early August to expedite its sunset review and should have it completed by the end of September. Although one commissioner voted for a full review, two others opted for expedited reviews. One commissioner did not participate in the vote.

This is the third sunset review of this particular CVD order. The duties were initially applied in 2008.

Laura Miller

Laura Miller is a reporter and editor for Steel Market Update. She has held a variety of positions within the steel industry since 2007, including reporting and editing for Steel Business Briefing/Platts, the Association for Iron and Steel Technology, and Kallanish Commodities, as well as marketing for what was then known as ThyssenKrupp Steel USA (now AM/NS Calvert). After a five-year hiatus working across other industries, she returned to steel in 2021 and has covered the flat rolled, tubular, and trade areas of the industry. She is a member of the Association of Women in the Metal Industries and a past-president of the AWMI Pittsburgh Chapter. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at laura@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7869.

Read more from Laura Miller

Latest in Trade Cases

Leibowitz: The consequences of a new barrage of trade cases on coated steel

Domestic steel producers and the United Steelworkers (USW) union filed a barrage of trade cases last week. This is hardly news. Ever since the Commerce Department ruled that Vietnam is still treated as a nonmarket economy (NME) for antidumping purposes, many in the business expected new cases on the product that Vietnam excels at—“corrosion-resistant steel.” Nor is it a surprise that these cases roped in nine countries in addition to Vietnam: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. All these countries rank in the top ten exporters of corrosion-resistant steel to the United States. These petitions are a broadside against coated flat-rolled steel imports.