RI imposes antidumping duty on Japan, Singaporean steel pipes

JAKARTA (JP): The government has decided to impose temporary antidumping duties of between five percent and 81 percent on welded steel pipe imports from Japan and Singapore.

The antidumping duty was imposed by the Indonesian Antidumping Committee (KADI) after it found strong evidence that steel producers from the two countries sold their steel products here below production cost, Antara reported on Friday.

The countervailing duties affected several Japanese welded pipe producers, including Kawasaki, Marubeni, Nippon Steel, NKK and Sumitomo, with antidumping charges of 12 percent, 51 percent, 5 percent, 81 percent and 54 percent respectively.

Meanwhile, all welded pipe producers from Singapore are imposed with the same level of antidumping duty of 78 percent.

Among the types of welded pipes affected by the antidumping duties are plain end casing of the H40, J55 and K55 grades.

The antidumping duties imposed on imported welded pipes from Japan and Singapore are only temporary and will be effective for four months from the issuance of the decree, which was signed on Wednesday by Minister of Finance Bambang Sudibyo.

KADI's antidumping investigation of Japanese and Singaporean steel pipe producers were based on complaints lodged last year by several local pipe producers, including PT South East Asia Pipe Industries, PT KHI Pipe Industries and PT Bumi Karya Steel, as well as the Indonesian Association of Steel Pipe Producers (Gapipa).

Gapipa had accused steel pipe producers from Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea of dumping practices, saying that its members had lost out to steel producers from the four countries because of the latter's bad business practices.

Indonesia imported 259,235 tons of steel pipe last year to fulfill domestic demands, which stood at 437,753 tons in 1999. (cst)