SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) today hailed the US Department of Commerce (DOC) final determination that steel pipe imports from nine countries including South Korea has harmed competition. The case will now be forwarded to International Trade Commission for a hearing next week.

Thomas J. Gibson, president and CEO of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), said, "Imports from these countries have surged in the past few years, and we are pleased that the Commerce Department has reversed its preliminary determination with respect to Korea and taken this critical step to find that imports from all nine investigated countries are benefitting from unfair trade practices.   It is critical that the U.S. government continue to aggressively and strictly enforce our trade laws to ensure that relief is provided to steelmakers and the nearly one million workers directly or indirectly supported by the steel industry.  Today’s determination is a positive development in this important case."

The DOC has imposed duties on OCTG imports from South Korea, India, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam. The duties must be paid immediately and will be refunded later if the US ITC rules against the DOC’s final determination. Due to suspension agreement, the DOC will not collect duties on imports from Ukraine. However it found that the imports from the country too were dumped at lower cost in the US market.