Wheatland Tube files anticircumvention petition on circular welded pipe

CHICAGO (December 17, 2021) — The Wheatland Tube division of Zekelman Industries today filed a request for the U.S. Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) to conduct an anticircumvention inquiry regarding circular welded pipe (“CWP”) that is completed in Oman and the United Arab Emirates (“UAE”) using hot-rolled steel manufactured in India. The request seeks to have Commerce issue a determination that such merchandise is circumventing the existing antidumping duty order on CWP from India and, therefore, should be covered by that order. Wheatland Tube was joined in the request by co-petitioners Bull Moose Tube Company, Nucor Tubular Products, and the United Steelworkers. CWP products are also commonly referred to as standard pipe, and these products are used in plumbing and heating, air conditioning, automatic sprinkler, and fencing systems.

In recent years, Indian producers and exporters have been shipping ever-increasing volumes of hot-rolled steel to Oman and the UAE to be processed into CWP in those countries and avoid paying the high antidumping duties in place on imports of CWP from India. In fact, U.S. imports of CWP from Oman and the UAE have increased by roughly 35 percent — from 389,477 metric tons in the four-year period from 2013 to 2016 to 525,412 metric tons in the four-year period from 2017 to 2020. During this same period, exports of hot-rolled steel from India into Oman and the UAE have also increased dramatically.

The request filed today at Commerce seeks a ruling that Indian hot-rolled steel that is processed into CWP in Oman and the UAE constitutes merchandise “completed or assembled” in those countries for purposes of circumvention of the India CWP order under U.S. law. If Commerce issues an affirmative ruling, the antidumping duties now applicable to CWP from India would apply to imports of the relevant merchandise from Oman and the UAE. The antidumping duty rates on CWP from India range from nearly 12 percent to over 87 percent.

“Massive volumes of imports of CWP made from Indian hot-rolled steel have been coming into the United States, and these imports have been displacing U.S.-made product and causing negative effects on employment and sales,” said Barry Zekelman, CEO at Zekelman Industries. “Today we are taking this action to ensure that unfairly traded products do not take jobs from American workers or harm U.S. companies. Zekelman intends to vigorously pursue all circumvention related to tubular products.”

Zekelman Industries is the largest steel pipe and tube producer in North America, with nearly 3,000 employees in the United States and plants in nine states.

Today’s filing was prepared by Schagrin Associates, a Washington, D.C.-based international trade law firm that also was counsel to Wheatland Tube in the original antidumping investigation.

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About Wheatland Tube

Wheatland Tube, a division of Zekelman Industries, produces a wide range of steel tubular products, including standard steel pipe, galvanized mechanical tubing, fence framework, fire sprinkler pipe, electrical conduit, elbows, couplings and nipples. For more information, visit wheatland.com

About Zekelman Industries

Zekelman Industries includes the operating divisions of Atlas Tube, Picoma, Sharon Tube, Wheatland Tube, Western Tube and Z Modular. It is the largest independent manufacturer of hollow structural sections (HSS) and steel pipe, and the top producer of electrical conduit and elbows, couplings and nipples in North America. Zekelman Industries delivers a broad range of pipe and tube solutions that build its customers’ success.