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Thursday, March 07, 2002

By Len Boselovic, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

While other steel companies are overjoyed with President Bush's decision to impose tariffs on imports for three years, a New Castle steel products company says its plight was ignored by the White House.

New Castle's Flowline is one of a handful of small U.S. producers of stainless pipe fittings and flanges. This June 1999 photo shows an annealing furnace in the process of being lifted, revealing stainless steel elbows. (Bill Wade, Post-Gazette)

Bush didn't impose any tariffs on stainless steel flanges and fittings, the main products of Flowline. President Phillip Mavrich said that meant that Flowline and its domestic competitors would continue to be battered by cheap imports, which have increased 55 percent since 1996.

"I'm stunned, if you want to know the truth. It's beyond belief to me," said Mavrich. "We're small potatoes and we got ignored totally."

Flowline, which employs 70 hourly workers, down from 78 at the end of last year, is one of a handful of U.S. companies that make stainless pipe fittings and flanges used to connect tubing in everything from industrial plants to nuclear submarines. Mavrich said the small industry was more in need of import protection than segments of the industry that will benefit from Bush's decision.

The industry made its case in September when representatives testified before the U.S. International Trade Commission, the government agency that advised Bush on the issue. They told commission members imports increased 41 percent between 1996 and 2000.

Importers' share of the market jumped from 67.8 percent to 82.9 percent during that time while industrywide employment fell from 942 workers in 1996 to 794 last summer.

"If you compare our statistics with anybody else's, statistically we were damaged more than anybody else," Mavrich said.

When the ITC made its recommendations to Bush in December, three commissioners recommended tariffs and three did not.

Because their industry is so small and fragmented, flange and fittings makers lack the political clout of large steelmakers that employ thousands of politically active unionized workers.

Big steelmakers share the costs of hiring high-priced trade lawyers to fight illegal imports through trade cases administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the ITC.

Flowline has pursued trade cases on its own several times and that's one of the options Mavrich is considering. The cases can result in tariffs similar to those imposed by Bush.

"Every time we've done it, we've won," Mavrich said.