Antidumping duty urged on steel pipe imports

Antidumping duty urged on steel pipe imports

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
chairman Aburizal Bakrie called on the government on Tuesday to
impose a 50 percent antidumping duty on steel pipe imports from
Japan, South Korea and China to protect local producers from
unfair competition.

Bakrie said local pipe producers had been severely affected by
the economic crisis and the hardship had been aggravated by the
alleged dumping practices committed by steel producers from the
three countries.

"The chamber has received reports from the Association of
Steel Pipe Manufacturers (Gapipa) that almost all of its 15
members have been experiencing great difficulties in competition
with steel pipe imports sold at prices that suggest dumping,"

"The chamber thus proposes a 50 percent antidumping duty be
imposed on steel pipe imports from those countries," Bakrie said
in a statement after a meeting with Gapipa executives.

Bakrie noted the proposed antidumping duty was lower than the
67 percent antidumping duty imposed by the United States
government on steel pipe imports from Japan.

Referring to information from the Indonesian trade attache in
Tokyo, Gapipa chairman Warasdimulya told the chamber at the
meeting that Japanese steelmakers sold their pipes in Indonesia
for US$540 per ton, compared with their selling price of US$1,000
per ton in Japan.

Warasdimulya said local steel producers were forced to cut
their annual output to 200,000 tons from 1.5 million tons due to
the weak demand amid the economic crisis.

A total of US$1 billion has been invested in the country's
steel pipe sector, Warasdimulya said, adding that the bankruptcy
of local steel pipe manufacturers could affect the banking sector
which had provided the financing.

Local steel pipe producers, including a subsidiary of the
Bakrie group, have been expecting orders from construction
company PT McDermott Indonesia, which won a tender for the
construction of a giant underwater natural gas pipeline linking
west of Natuna island to Singapore.

But a source at McDermott recently told The Jakarta Post that
the company had placed orders with a Japanese trading house for
the supply of steel pipes for the pipeline project.

Gapipa charged the Japanese trading house with selling its
steel pipes at prices that indicate dumping.

Bakrie called on the government to impose an antidumping duty
on the Japanese steel pipes to be used by McDermott for the
pipeline project.

"Given the fact that oil and gas companies are exempt from
import duties, it's reasonable that the government impose an
antidumping duty on imported pipes to protect the local steel
pipe industry," Bakrie said.(jsk)