China protests U.S. steel duties, starts car probe

Chinese steel exports to the U.S. plunged 73 percent in the first eight months from a year ago, the China Iron & Steel Association said last month.

The value of Chinese steel-pipe exports under investigation reached US$3.2 billion last year, or 46 percent of the country's total steel exports to the U.S., the Chinese ministry said. It “strongly opposes” the duties, the statement said.

“The U.S. has had a lot of trade remedy measures this year against China,” said Hu Yanping, a Beijing-based analyst with Umetal, a steel research company. “China has bought huge U.S. debts. Why is the U.S. always targeting China?”

The U.S. has carried out 13 investigations against Chinese products this year for alleged dumping and illegal subsidies, the Asian nation's commerce ministry said in the statement.

“China's government and exporters are being told we are fed up with their cheating on our fair-trade laws and penalties for these transgressions are long overdue,” Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers, said in a statement.

The pipe case, the largest so-called countervailing and anti-dumping duty complaint filed against Chinese-made products, was brought by the union, U.S. Steel, U.S. operations of Evraz Group SA, and Pennsylvania-based Wheatland Tube Co.

The two top Chinese exporters of the pipe to the U.S. received their own specific rates. Jiangsu Changbao Steel Tube Co. won't face any dumping duties, while Tianjin Pipe was assessed a 36.5 percent duty. Changbao received a 24 percent countervailing duty in September.

“Capacity utilization at plants has tumbled to below 50 percent” for makers of the oil pipes, Tianjin's Li said, citing data from the Chinese steel association. “We have to shift to making other products but demand for them is much smaller.”

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