Ukraine slams duties on seamless pipe imports from China

Ukraine decided to introduce a 51.52% anti-dumping
duty on imports of seamless pipes from China, the economy ministry said in a
May 22 post on its website. The state interdepartmental commission on international
trade made this decision on the same date, according to the post. The full text
of the commission’s decision has not been published yet.

The investigation was initiated in May 2019 on a
request by Interpipe NTRP and Interpipe Niko Tube, subsidiaries of Ukraine’s
largest pipe and railway wheel producer Interpipe (INTHOL).

In 2019, Ukraine’s imports of Chinese pipes that are
within the scope of the anti-dumping investigation amounted to 21.8 kt (33%
less yoy) for USD 33.2 mln, according to Concorde Capital’s analysis of State
Statistics data. In 1Q20, these imports amounted to 4.3 kt (48% less yoy) for
USD 5.5 mln. The 51.52% duty applies to the large part of these volumes,
according to the economy ministry post.

Dmytro Khoroshun: Interpipe’s
gains from this decision will be modest. For example, in 2019 the volume of
pipes imported from China to which the new duties will apply was only 4% of
Interpipe’s total seamless pipe sales (6% for 2018).

Nevertheless, we view this victory as a matter of principle
for Interpipe and for Ukraine. This is because Interpipe complained in the past
that China not only dumped the sales of its pipes in Ukraine, but also de facto
closed its domestic market for Ukrainian pipes by implicit government
directives within the country’s centrally planned system.

Therefore, it
is positive that Ukraine’s government agreed with Interpipe’s anti-dumping
arguments and restored some balance in the country’s seamless pipe trade with
China.