Ukraine’s Interpipe Wins Reduction in EU Tariff to 13.8%

Ukraine’s Interpipe Group won a reduction of more than a fifth in a European Union steel-pipe tariff because the EU found the company had reduced price undercutting.

The EU lowered the import duty applying to two Interpipe units -- Interpipe Niko Tube and Interpipe Nizhnedneprovsky Tube Rolling Plant OJSC (NITR) -- to 13.8 percent from 17.7 percent.

The levy is part of EU trade protection as high as 35.8 percent on seamless pipes and tubes from Ukraine and Russia to help EU producers including ArcelorMittal (MT) counter below-cost -- or “dumped” -- imports. The bloc said organizational changes at Interpipe, including a merger between two production companies and a streamlining of the sales operations, led to a lower dumping margin.

“The changes are of a lasting nature,” the 27-nation EU said in a decision made in Brussels on Aug. 28 and published today in the Official Journal. The decision, due to take effect tomorrow, is the outcome of a 13-month review of the duty that Interpipe had requested.

Separately, the EU renewed for five years a 47.4 percent anti-dumping duty on imports from China of a metal component for binders called lever-arch mechanisms. The bloc published that decision in the Official Journal today as well.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Stearns in Brussels at jstearns2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net