U.S. Stainless Pipe Producers File Antidumping Petitions
05/24/2013 - Bristol Metals, Felker Brothers Corp. and Outokumpu Stainless Pipe filed antidumping duty petitions with the U.S. government alleging that welded stainless pressure pipe imported from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam were being dumped in the U.S. market.
Synalloy Corporation, a holding company owning subsidiaries that engage in a number of diverse business activities including the production of stainless steel pipe, fiberglass and steel storage tanks, specialty chemicals and fabrication of stainless and carbon steel piping systems, announced that on 16 May 2013 its Bristol Metals, LLC subsidiary, joined by co-petitioners Felker Brothers Corp. and Outokumpu Stainless Pipe filed antidumping duty petitions with the Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission alleging that welded stainless pressure pipe imported from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam were being dumped in the U.S. market.
Kyle Pennington, president of Bristol Metals, stated that "imports of welded stainless pressure pipe from these three countries have increased substantially over the past 3 years at prices well below domestic market prices. Because these are commodity products, this has had a negative impact on our sales volumes and forced us to decrease our selling prices, which lowered Bristol's financial results as demonstrated in recent earnings reports. We are glad our domestic competitors joined with us in seeking relief from these unfairly traded imports."
Between 2010 and 2012 imports of welded stainless steel pressure pipe from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam increased from 14,000 tons to 17,000 tons and have taken a significant share of a relatively stagnant U.S. market. The petitions alleged dumping margins of: 15% to 17% for Malaysia, 13% to 15% for Thailand and 70% to 71% for Vietnam. The International Trade Commission will address this matter at a staff conference on 6 June 2013. The ITC will make a preliminary determination prior to 1 July 2013 and the Department of Commerce preliminary dumping determination is due on 12 December 2013. Even though the company has been successful in past litigation involving anti-dumping petitions, this case is pending and there is no assurance that this suit will result in a favorable outcome to the plaintiffs.
The same petitioners filed petitions against dumped and subsidized imports of welded stainless pipe from China and antidumping and countervailing duties against welded stainless pressure pipe imports from China were imposed in 2009.
