Local News
UPDATE: Pipemakers win one; ITC says Chinese pipe ‘dumped’ in U.S.
The U.S. International Trade Commission made what the president of Wheatland Tube Co. called a positive move for the steel industry on Wednesday by allowing duties of 10 to 16 percent on certain Chinese steel products.
The six-person commission unanimously ruled in favor of U.S. steel interests who said that Chinese steel companies were flooding the U.S. market with products sold at unfairly low prices – a practice known as “dumping” – and injuring the industry here.
The product in question is oil-country tubular goods, welded seamless pipes used to extract oil and gas from drilled wells. More than $2.7 billion worth of the product was imported to the U.S. from China in 2009.
Bill Kerins, Wheatland Tube’s president, said it is too early to tell just what impact the ruling will have on the company or the domestic steel industry, but he said it should be a positive one in years to come.
“We still have to deal with a lot of Chinese product on the ground, probably throughout next year,” he said, but, he added, “This should help level the playing field.”
Wheatland Tube was part of the group of U.S. steelmakers and the United Steelworkers union that sought the duties in April. Representatives of the company and six other pipe producers pleaded their case to the ITC in Washington D.C. earlier this week. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, McCandless, D-4th District, and U.S. Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, Erie, D-3rd District, also testified, saying Chinese dumping was costing the U.S. steelworkers jobs.
“The ITC’s ruling is truly great news for America’s steel industry,” Rep. Altmire said in a statement. “For years, a flood of heavily subsidized Chinese imports has placed America’s steel industry at an unfair competitive disadvantage.”
China can appeal the ruling to the World Trade Organization.
The duties imposed Wednesday are intended to offset the government subsidies that the U.S. government says China provides its steelmakers.
The ITC will decide in the spring whether to impose additional tariffs of up to 96 percent to penalize Chinese steelmakers for dumping.
Roger Schagrin, counsel for the United Steelworkers and five steel manufacturers, said the decision could enable the U.S. steel industry to ramp up production and re-hire workers by the second half of next year, once current inventories of steel pipe are sold off.
Prices for steel pipe fell by half from their peak in 2008 through September 2009, he said, driven down by low-priced Chinese imports.
Daniel Porter, a lawyer representing the Chinese steel exporters, said the U.S. industry was hurt by a boom-and-bust cycle that resulted when the price of oil soared to about $140 a barrel in the summer of 2008, only to drop below $50 less than a year later.
Higher oil prices spurred more drilling, which caused oil companies to order more of the pipes. Those orders dried up when prices fell, Porter said. “If demand collapses, that affects everyone,” he said. “It has nothing to do with imports.”
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Commissioners formally move to raise sewer fees
Hermitage commissioners introduced an ordinance Wednesday to increase sanitary user fees.
Residents tapped into the Hermitage Municipal Authority lines now pay $95 a quarter. That rate will bump up to $105 a quarter on Jan. 1, under the proposed rate hike.
Two more hikes on Jan. 1, 2012, and Jan. 1, 2013, will result in the rates increasing 50 percent from the current fee. -
Water is on at Forrest Brooke
Water service has been restored at Forrest Brooke Manufactured Home Community after well problems left the 165-unit complex dry Tuesday.
A boil and conserve water advisory has been issued by the DEP and will remain in place until tests confirm the water is safe to drink, Forrest Brooke’s manager Pete Havens said.
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Storm damages trees, wires
Thunderstorms ripped through parts of Mercer and neighboring counties Wednesday night, downing trees and wires and keeping rescue workers on their toes.
A Mercer County 911 dispatcher shortly after 8 p.m. said they were busy with calls across the northern part of the county. He said there had been a few reports of trees falling on homes.
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City leaders open to talks
Sharon officials aren’t opposed to sitting down with their counterparts in Farrell to revisit the idea of combining the two struggling cities.
“It never costs a penny to talk and there’s no (idea) that’s not worth looking at,” Sharon councilman Ed Palanski said. “I think it would be foolish to oppose looking at the idea.”
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Murphy’s Law doesn’t faze regional planners
A complicated, two-day public meeting blitz in 32 counties ran headlong into Murphy’s Law in Mercer County on Tuesday.
The group Power of 32 are looking to re-write the regional map and create a grand, 15-year strategic economic plan for the 32 counties in four states that make up the Ohio River basin and greater Pittsburgh area.
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Forrest Brooke copes with water outage
Residents of Forrest Brooke Mobile Home Community in Jefferson and Lackawannock Townships woke up Tuesday morning to find they didn’t have any water.
Managers of the park could not be reached for comment, but residents said they were told they won’t get water service back for at least another month.
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City facing bleak financial reality
LaVon Saternow has been Farrell’s city manager since 1992. Shortly after she took the job, Sharon Steel, the city’s economic engine, officially closed down.
Since, the city has struggled to remain solvent and Mrs. Saternow said it is facing its worst financial crisis in her tenure.
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Near-complete addition to let man come home
Although the weather delayed the start of Penny and Paul Strechansky’s construction project by about three weeks, the end of the sawing, hammering and stapling is in sight.
“It should be done by the middle of next week,” Strechansky said of the 15-by-20 foot addition being built onto the back of his garage in Hermitage, which will be the new home of his grandson, David Johnson.
Johnson was critically injured in a car crash June 19, 2009, on what is now Interstate 376 in Lawrence County. The crash rendered Johnson, who just turned 21, blind and brain damaged. He is unable to care for himself.
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Man prison-bound for role in drug buy shooting
It may never be known for certain who fired the two fatal shots that killed a Sharon teen on Nov. 6 on Wallis Avenue during a botched drug deal, prosecutors have said.
But Christopher Swogger, 24, Sharon, was fingered by at least one other suspect as the one whose bullets killed John B. Hosey III, 18, of 422 Meek St. Swogger was sentenced Monday.
Swogger was sent to prison for 1 1/2 to 3 years for having a firearm without a license, ending his role in the criminal prosecutions of the drug deal turned shooting.
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Farrell, Sharon to revisit merger
Times are tough.
In Farrell Monday night, city council heard a grim financial report from City Manager LaVon Saternow.
“It’s not a pretty picture,” Mrs. Saternow said. “We could conceivably run out of cash by the end of the year. I don’t know how to put it more bluntly.”
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Commissioners formally move to raise sewer fees
