Washington - The US commerce department on Tuesday launched one of its biggest trade investigations in years into charges that manufacturers in South Korea, India and seven other countries are selling steel pipe used by oil and natural gas producers at unfairly low prices in the United States.
Imports of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) from the nine countries totalled nearly $1.8bn in 2012, more than double their total in 2010, as rising US oil and natural gas production have increased demand for the pipe.
In 2010, the United States slapped duties on imports of OCTG from China after they hit about $2.8bn in 2008. The duties slapped on imports from China created an opening for the other foreign suppliers.
The latest case targets South Korea, which exported about $831m worth of the pipe to the United States last year, as well as India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and Ukraine.
US producers are asking for anti-dumping duties as high as 240% on India, 158%t on South Korea, 118% on Thailand and 111% on Vietnam to offset what they say is below market pricing, and lesser but still hefty duties on the other five countries.
For two countries, Turkey and India, US producers are seeking additional countervailing duties to offset alleged government subsidies.