COMPANY PRODUCT INQUIRY INFORMATION COMMUNITY NEWS Welcome to Wanjoo Metals       HOME > CUSTOMER CENTER > NEWS TITLE  China to send delegation to U.S. over steel dispute WRITER   administrator DATE   2009-04-20 08:55:02 China to send delegation to U.S. over steel dispute April 16, 2009 China is sending a delegation to the U.S. in response to American tube producers’ complaint that Chinese companies were dumping pipes on American shores. American producers’ response: Bring it on. Yao Jian, a Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman announced the move Wednesday while speaking at a regular news briefing. He gave no details of when the delegation would visit. Last week Wheatland Tube Co. along with six other tube producers and the United Steelworkers filed an unfair trade petition over Chinese imports for oil country tubular products. Wheatland Tube produces oil country pipes in Warren, Ohio, and they are then finished at the company’s Sharon plant. The petition alleges Chinese producers are benefiting from massive government subsidies which are prohibited under international trade laws. Further, it alleges Chinese products are being dumped on American shores on margins ranging from 40 to 90 percent. Dumping is when a company sells a product below the price it cost to produce it. Oil country tubes are used to extract oil or gas from a drilled well. Yao said the U.S. should resist protectionism as it deals with the antidumping complaints. “The Chinese business community and the government are highly concerned about this case ... and will take suitable responsive measures,” Yao said. Yao said the volume of Chinese steel exports to the U.S. in the first quarter of this year had actually fallen 55 percent from a year ago. That figure has nothing to do with oil country imports, said Roger Schagrin, a Washington, D.C., attorney representing pipe producers in the trade case. U.S. producers said oil country imports from China have tripled from 750,000 tons in 2006 to 2.2 million tons in 2008 and have continued rising this year. “Compared to other pipe and tube products, Chinese oil country products tend to be made by gigantic state-owned integrated steel producers,’’ Schagrin said. “They built up this massive industry and have to export three-fourths of what they produce in oil country products. There’s no other place in the world for this to go.’’ U.S. pipe workers and producers just want China to stop subsidizing that industry and dumping products on U.S. shores, said Mickey Bolt, a spokesman for the Alliance for American Manufacturing. The organization is comprised of U.S. companies and unions. “For their government to say they’re very upset about this — all they have to do is stop subsidizing that industry,’’ Bolt said. Bill Kerins, president of Wheatland Tube said American pipe producers have a solid case. “We feel we have documented evidence that China has both dumped and subsidized products,’’ Kerins said. Resource from www.sharon-herald.com [ L I S T ] WanJoo Metals All rights reserved. TEL : +82-2-585-2581, 2571,   FAX : +82-2-585-2587, 8799 FL.2 DaedeokPlaza Bldg, 206, Geumgok-Dong, Bundang-Gu, Seongnam-Si, Gyeonggi-Do 463-480, Korea