Association News

Six U.S. manufacturers of OCTG products have formed a new Washington D.C.-based trade association called the U.S. OCTG Manufacturers Association. The six companies are Tenaris in the USA, Vallourec Star LP, Borusan Pipe US, PTC Liberty Tubulars, Welded Tube US and Axis Pipe and Tube.

The group elected Luca Zanotti, the president of Tenaris in the USA, as chairman of USOMA.

"As American energy production is a matter of national security, we must promote and develop reliable, domestic supply chains, such as a world-class U.S. OCTG industry. Foreign producers, many from countries that do not have a local OCTG market, and have non-market excess capacity, account for roughly half of the U.S. market. The U.S. industry can replace these imports and create thousands of high-paying jobs in American OCTG plants and in the American steel plants that supply their hot-rolled coils, while reducing the carbon footprint," said Zanotti.

The six members of the new trade group have 19 facilities in nine states and employ approximately 7,500 American workers. The group estimates it represents about 75 percent of U.S. OCTG production.

The new trade association appointed veteran Washington trade lawyer Roger Schagrin of Schagrin Associates as its general counsel. "Our goal is to level the playing field for the U.S. OCTG industry and bring OCTG imports down to market shares aligned with basic steel products. At a time when U.S. trade and climate policy is focusing on decarbonization, it is important that U.S. OCTG manufacturers offer exploration and production companies domestically manufactured, reliable, low-GHG products,” he said.