Pipeliners

MOSCOW, August 5 (RIA Novosti) -- The United States is preparing to introduce an import quota for Chinese welded pipes, which may mean that they could come to the Russian market, a business newspaper reported Friday. Biznes wrote that Russian pipeline producers feared a repeat of 2004, when Ukrainian producers dumped their pipelines on the market. Seven U.S. pipe producers have initiated an anti-dumping investigation by the U.S. International Trade Commission. They consider that the import of the given pipes from China should be limited to 90,000 metric tons a year. But 182,000 tons of Chinese pipes have already been supplied. If the Americans establish quotas, about 250,000 tons of Chinese pipes may end up on the Russian market. The U.S. hearings on the issue will be held in mid-September. The Chinese pipes would equal a 5% share of the Russian pipe market, said Alexander Deineko, who heads the Pipe Industry Development Fund. If they were to emerge in Russia, he said medium-sized and small plants producing pipes for regional needs would be the first to suffer, but major producers would also be hit hard. "We knew that a net exporter was building up its presence nearby," Deineko said. "But we did not think it would become a real threat as early as 2005." In the opinion of Dmitry Baranov, head of analysis with the PRADO Bankir i Konsultant commercial group, the threat of China losing the U.S. market is real. However, he said China would try to dispatch the "released" pipes to Southeast Asia and the Middle East, as there are no major pipe exporters from the U.S. and Europe. He added it was unlikely that these pipes would be competitive in Russia due to their inferior quality. Meanwhile, Andrei Litvin, an analyst with MDM bank, said he was certain that Russia would have time to introduce protective measures, as was the case with the Ukrainian pipes in 2004.