EU keeps anti-dumping duties on seamless pipe imports from Russia, Ukraine
KYIV. July 11 (Interfax) - Duties to import seamless pipes from Ukraine and Russia to the EU will be kept in place, the EU said in its official journal dated July 4.
The decision was reached on June 26 following a review, initiated by European manufacturers and begun in June last year, of the anti-dumping duties imposed in 2006, and entered into effect the day after official publication.
Ukrainian pipes imports will continue to be subject to 25.7% duty with some concessions for the Dnipropetrovsk pipe mill (12.3%) and two Interpipe mills, Nizhnedniprovsky and Niko-Tube (17.7%).
Duty on seamless pipes from Russia stays at 35.8% with concessions for Chelyabinsk Tube Rolling Plant (ChTPZ) and Pervouralsk New Pipe Plant (PNTZ) (24.1%) and the Volzhsky, Seversky, Sinara and Taganrog mills (27.25).
The EU has, though, scrapped the 29.8% duty on seamless pipes from Croatia.
Russia shipped 10,790 tonnes of pipes to the EU in the period under review (April 2010 to March 2011) or 1% of the EU market, and Ukraine less than 1%.
The probe established that Ukrainian seamless pipes were dumped on the market. The document says that Ukrainian companies export seamless pipes to other countries at the same prices as they sell to the EU or lower. Given the available capacity in Ukraine too produce around 750,000 tonnes of pipes, or 50% of Ukraine's entire capacity and 50% of the EU market, this is damaging to European manufacturers.
Pipe consumption in the EU in the period in question was 1.72 million tonnes, or 66% of the 2008 level.
