Government asked to reimpose duties on pipe imports

Government asked to reimpose duties on pipe imports

JAKARTA (JP): Local steel pipe producers have urged the
government to reimpose countervailing duties on welded steel pipe
imports from China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore after they
were revoked earlier this month.

Abas F. Soeriawidjaja, president of PT South East Asia Pipe
Industries (SEAPI), said he feared that dumping practices would
start again without the duties.

He cited as potential dumping targets several major projects,
including the gas pipelines in Sumpal and Suban under Gulf
Indonesia Resources, the West Natuna trunkline system, and the
gas pipe project spanning South Sumatra and Singapore under PT
Perusahaan Gas Negara.

The projects in Sumpal, Suban and West Natuna alone needed a
total of about 90,000 tons of welded steel pipes, he said on
Tuesday.

"The government should be consistent in protecting local
industries, especially since the country's economy has not
recovered yet," Abas said.

The Indonesian Antidumping Committee (KADI) imposed temporary
countervailing duties of between 5 percent and 81 percent on
welded steel pipes from China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore
in July last year, after finding strong evidence that producers
sold their products here below their production cost.

The duties were scheduled to be removed in November last year,
but the government only revoked them this month after finding
that petitioners for the duty had also used dumped products for
their business.

The Ministry of Finance earlier said the use of dumped
products had led to the petitioners' own sales dropping below 25
percent of the country's total market volume. This meant their
petition was no longer valid.

The World Trade Organization requires petitioners for
antidumping duties to possess at least 25 percent of the market.

Abas said that after KADI notified producers of the
countervailing duties' time limit in November, his company had
sent in a new petition for the imposition of duties specifically
for longitudinally welded steel pipes, which SEAPI produces.

He said the new petition was based on evidence of dumping
practices on the West Natuna gas project. The project orders
longitudinally welded steel pipes from Japan through Marubeni
trading house, which is supplied by Sumitomo, NKK and Kawasaki.

The West Natuna trunkline is being built by a consortium of
Conoco, Gulf Indonesia Resources and British Premier, with PT
McDermott Indonesia as contractor.

Abas claimed some 120,000 tons of longitudinally welded pipes
were dumped into the country through the Batam Port between
October 1999 and January 2000.

"The thing is that longitudinally welded steel pipes are
needed in the projects, and they are the ones that have been
dumped into Indonesia between 1999 and 2000," he said.

SEAPI produced longitudinally welded steel pipes with a
diameter of between 24 inches and 48 inches, at a capacity of
200,000 tons a year, Abas said.

The company accounted for more than 25 percent of local steel
pipe production and therefore complied with the WTO's benchmark
to be a petitioner, he said. (tnt)