TPT March 2010

G lobal M arketplace

made pipe brought into the US for use on the oil patch. From 2006 to 2008, imports of oil country tubular goods from China increased 203% by volume, according to the Commerce Department. The US imported $2.74bn in OCTG from China in 2008, more than triple the previous year’s total, as a surge in oil prices boosted demand for oilfield pipe. Coming as it did on 30 December, the ITT decision concluded a contentious year even by the standards of US-China trade relations. American companies and unions brought some dozen trade cases against China in 2009, citing government subsidies and objectionable pricing practices. A major flash-point came in September, with President Barack Obama’s imposition of a 35%

duty on $1.85bn in imported Chinese-made tyres in response to what the ITT called a market-disrupting surge. China thereupon filed a tyres-related complaint at the World Trade Organization and began a probe into whether American-made cars were being sold in China at unfairly low prices. For its part, the US lodged dumping accusations of its own against China. The Commerce Department has announced preliminary antidumping duties ranging up to 99% on the Chinese OCTG at issue in the subsidies case, with final decision on the size of these additional duties expected by early April. The stage would then be set for a second ITT vote, probably in May, on whether to allow those additional duties.

Is all this just the tit-for-tat to be expected when huge amounts of product are moved about by nations with conflicting commercial ambitions? The real question for onlookers is whether or not it portends the onset of a trade war between China and the US with potential for sending a protectionist response rippling across the globe. › A Vietnamese perspective on the US penalty duties on Chinese-made OCTG imports was offered by the director of the import/export company Son Ha International, based in Ho Chi Minh City. Noting that the tariffs will make Chinese products less competitive, Le Vinh Son told Voice of Vietnam (24 December) that his company would seize the opportunity to export roughly 2,000 metric tons of steel pipe per month to the US over the next two years. As reported by VOV , this reasoning relies on the perceived safety of keeping shipments to the US under 3% of its steel pipe imports for a given year. American trade authorities have yet to investigate steel pipes from Vietnam, as total imports of Vietnamese product account for 2.55% of that market. Nguyen Tien Nghi, the vice- chairman of the Vietnam Steel Association, said that Viet Duc and SeAH Steel began exporting steel pipe to the US in late 2008, booking several million dollars in orders. China’s Suntech will break ground under the Arizona sun for a photovoltaic solar panel plant While China and the US joust over OCTG imports, a quieter but potentially more significant Chinese incursion is taking place – unchallenged – in the American West. For some time it has been reported that China is coming on very strong in solar power. Just how strong is indicated

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