US Industry Defends ITC's Injury Finding on OCTG Imports at Trade Court

Exporter Tenaris Bay City's "only hope" in its case against the International Trade Commission's injury finding for oil country tubular goods from Argentina and Mexico is for the Court of International Trade to "reweigh the evidence," though this is barred by the "statutory standard of review," petitioners led by U.S. Steel Corp. argued. Replying to Tenaris' motion for judgment, the petitioners said that "[e]xtensive evidence confirmed that subject imports materially injured the domestic industry," and that the ITC permissibly cumulated imports from Russia in the analysis (Tenaris Bay City v. United States, CIT Consol. # 22-00344).

In the case, the TMK Group argued against Russia's inclusion based on the sanctions imposed following its invasion of Ukraine. U.S. Steel replied that since the sanctions only affected a "sliver" of data from the investigation period, at most, "the Commission lawfully cumulated Russia."

Tenaris claimed in its brief that seamless and welded oil country tubular goods are "non-fungible" (see 2305240049). The petitioners argued that this claim cuts against precedent and Tenaris' "own concessions that seamless and welded OCTG are largely interchangeable."

On Tenaris' evidentiary claims, the petitioners said the commission found that the imports injure the domestic industry, given their significant volume, price effects and impact. The market share and volume of the foreign goods "both increased significantly, until the petition restrained" their market share, the brief said. As such, the ITC properly gave less weight to the post-petition data, the petitioners claimed.

Tenaris also challenged the ITC's impact analysis, which noted the domestic industry's 8.2% loss of market share and its substantial dips in production, capacity use and employment. The exporter "has identified no error of law or lack of substantial evidence in the Commission's determination," the brief said.