[Ferro-Alloys.com] The International Trade Administration (ITA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) said Jul 11th that it has issued a final decision to impose anti-dumping duties on oil pipe exporters from Taiwan and other countries in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

The final ruling followed a DOC preliminary decision laid down in mid-February which found that Taiwanese firms violated U.S. anti-dumping rules when it sold oil country tubular goods (OCTG), used by oil and natural gas producers, to the U.S. market.

As a result, Taiwanese OCTG manufacturers, including Tension Steel Industries Co., have been ordered to pay penalties. The company has received an anti-dumping tariff of 2.52 percent from the ITA, the agency cited the final decision as saying in a statement.

The ITA, however, did not impose any anti-dumping duty penalty on another Taiwanese OCTG maker Chung Hung Steel. The ITA upheld a preliminary ruling by the DOC which said the company did not conduct any unfair trade by selling OCTG at unfairly low prices in the U.S.

The other eight countries, which have been ordered to pay anti-dumping tariffs are South Korea, the Philippines, India, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey and Ukraine.

In the case of South Korea, the final ruling reversed the preliminary decision. It said Korean firms did violate the U.S. anti-dumping law. In the preliminary decision, the DOC found mandatory respondents from South Korea did not engage in any trade by selling their products at unfairly lower prices.

The agency has ordered Hyundai HYSCO and NEXTEEL Co. to pay duties of 15.75 percent and 9.89 percent, respectively. All other OCTG makers in Korea had a tariff of 12.82 percent imposed on them.

The ITA also imposed countervailing duties on OCTG makers from India and Turkey.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is scheduled to issue a final injury determination on Aug. 25 on anti-dumping investigations involving exporters from India, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam and anti-subsidy probes involving India.

And on Sept. 23, the ITC is expected to lay down a final injury ruling on anti-dumping investigations involving Taiwan and South Korea, and anti-subsidy probes involving Turkey.

If the ITC's final ruling finds exporters from these countries caused material damage or threatened material injury to the U.S. counterparts, the DOC is scheduled to issue the final tariffs to be imposed on these foreign OCTG makers on Sept. 2 or Oct. 1.

According to the DOC, Taiwan sold about US$79 million worth of OCTG products in the U.S. market in 2013, compared with US$812 million worth of products sold by South Korea.

• [Editor:Yueleilei]