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S. Korean pipe dumping costing U.S. steelworker jobs
By Jordan Cohen
WARREN
Illegal dumping of steel pipe by South Korea into the United States has cost the jobs of hundreds of steelworkers including 40 at Warren’s Wheatland Tube mill, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and company representatives charged Friday.
In a news conference inside the Dietz Road Northeast facility where pipes are produced for energy drilling, Brown criticized U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker for her previous ruling that cleared South Korean pipe producers of selling at artificially low prices to undercut American producers. Wheatland Tube, a division of JMC Steel, was among several steel companies including Youngstown’s Vallourec Star and Brookfield’s TMK IPSCO, which had unsuccessfully petitioned the Commerce Department to act against South Korea. Brown is among 57 U.S. senators including Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who have appealed the ruling.
“I don’t believe [Pritzker] fully investigated the costs,” Brown said. “The Department of Commerce looked at a different kind of steel, [and] they should have looked at the steel of the quality produced here when they decided.
“South Korea has no domestic [pipe] market, and the steel they’re producing does not have the quality,” Brown said. “The facts are on our side.”
Nicholas Shubat, JMC EnergeX division general manager, said the layoffs of 40 Wheatland Tube employees “were entirely due to dumping.” He said the plant has invested $21 million in the past two years to develop the energy pipe mill and plans an additional $1.7 million in capital investment this summer. Wheatland Tube continues to manufacture construction and sprinkler pipes for commercial uses, but the product line could change.
“I see our plant making the transition to energy pipe, but our investment won’t pay off and won’t bring back jobs to this facility [if the ruling is not reversed],” Shubat said.
The United Steelworkers union is backing the effort for a favorable decision from the Commerce Department. “Our very existence is threatened,” said Steve Chalenor, president of USW Local 9306, which represents Wheatland steelworkers. “We’re asking for the government to let us compete fairly.”
Brown said one fundamental cause of dumping is the practice by China “and Korea to a lesser degree” to create artificial value for their currencies instead of letting the open market determine it. He believes a bill containing trade penalties for countries artificially manipulating their currency will pass the Democrat-controlled Senate, but he would not speculate about the bill’s fate when it comes to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and especially the speaker of the House.
“John Boehner killed the bill the last time, and now he has to decide whether he is speaker of the House or speaker of the tea party,” Brown said.
Shubat said more than 1 million tons of pipe were dumped in the U.S. last year and that oil steel tube imports have increased by 61 percent this year above the 2013 total.