The US Department of Commerce has determined a preliminary reduction in existing duties for the imports of heavy walled rectangular carbon steel pipes and tubes (HWR pipes and tubes) from Mexico, following a request from local producer Prolamsa, according to a notice published this week at the US Federal Register.
Mexican tube and pipe producer Productos Laminados de Monterrey, Prolamsa, said on February 29, 2016, the US Department of Commerce “failed” to weight average Prolamsa's reported costs by production quantity, but instead calculated a simple average of Prolamsa's costs.
As a result of the ministerial error made in the margin calculation of the determination for Prolamsa, the department proposed a 5.17 percent “weighted-average dumping margin” for the Mexican producer. All other producers should pay a 4.92 percent dumping margin, the department said.
The US government said the mistake was “significant” because the correction of the error results in a change of “at least five absolute percentage points in, but not less than 25 percent of” the weighted-average dumping margin originally calculated for Prolamsa.