Many Chinese steel exporters have expressed deep concerns over recent successive actions taken by the US government against Chinese-made steel products, including seamless pipe, OCTG, drill pipe and wire decking.
Industry insiders have commented that it is still very likely that the US will initiate AD and CVD investigations on imports of Chinese pipes in the future. In fact, pipe products constitute the principal Chinese steel product imported into the US. From January to November 2009, China's imports of seamless pipes totaled 401,000 mt, while imports of pipe joints and casings reached 143,000 mt.
On January 5, the US Department of Commerce announced its decision to impose preliminary antidumping duties at 43 to 289 percent on imports of wire decking from China. Imports of the product in question from China in 2008 totaled a value of $317 million. Just one day previous, the United Steelworkers labor union and four US companies filed a new petition asking for antidumping and countervailing duties of 109-274 percent against drill pipes imported from China.