Mehmet Zeren, secretary general of the Turkish Steel Pipe Manufacturers Association (CEBID), said that Turkish pipe producers think no antidumping or countervailing duty will be decided in the US for Turkish OCTG imports in the ongoing investigation and he stated that, if an affirmative decision is reached for other countries, then Turkish steel pipe manufacturers will have an advantage in the US market. Speaking at the 8th SteelOrbis Turkish Steel Market Conference held in Istanbul on November 29, Mr. Zeren remarked that Turkey’s steel pipe exports to the US, its second largest export market following Iraq, declined by 15 percent year on year in the first 10 months of the current year, mostly due to this OCTG case.
The Turkish steel pipe industry, one of the main steel customers in Turkey with its annual flat steel consumption rate of 4.5 million metric tons, is heavily dependent on the Turkish government’s Inward Processing Regime, Mr. Zeren said, in order to maintain its price competitiveness in international markets, since there’s a $30-50/mt gap between domestic and imported hot rolled coil (HRC) prices. The Inward Processing Regime, which aims at incentivizing Turkey’s export activity, involves the reimbursement of taxes paid on imports of raw materials after the export of goods produced from the imported materials has been completed.