About 400 thousand tons of seamless pipes can be reoriented to the market of the Unified Energy System as a result of the trade war unleashed by the United States on the world steel market, Igor Malyshev, Director of the Pipe Industry Development Fund, said at the 16th Metallurgical Summit. The event, organized by the journal Metals of Eurasia, was held on June 5 in Moscow.

On June 1, 2018, the United States decided not to renew it with regard to the countries of the European Union, as well as Canada and Mexico (these countries accounted for about 49% of seamless pipe imports to the US market in 2017), exceptions from tariff restrictions on imports of steel and aluminum in the amount of 25% and 10%, respectively. Earlier, the EU and Turkey, fearing a sharp increase in imports of steel products as a result of the closure of the US market, initiated special protective investigations against all types of steel products, including pipes. The total volume of imports of pipe products to the EU and Turkey as of the end of 2017 exceeded 3.74 million tons. According to the FRTP, the threat of growth in imports due to the closure of the US market and forthcoming decisions based on the results of special protective investigations of the EU and Turkey is the highest in segments of threaded pipes (OCTG) for the production of hydrocarbons, stainless pipes and seamless linear pipes. "Manufacturers of steel products, including steel pipes, will look for opportunities to reorientate the volumes of pipes previously supplied to the US, EU and Turkey, to other markets, including the market of the EAEC, in order to load production capacities. Moreover, as a result of the US decision on the EU and Mexico, the producers of these countries will also have to look for new, not yet protected, sales markets, "Igor Malyshev explained. The reciprocal introduction of special protective measures is able to minimize the risks of pipeline overflow to the market of the EAEC, the FRTP is confident. Today, the level of tariff protection of the market of pipes of the EAPS is 5-7.5%, four anti-dumping protective measures are also applied against some types of steel and stainless pipes from Ukraine, threaded (OCTG) and cold-deformed pipes from China. In the prevailing circumstances, as never before, an important and urgent issue for the pipe industry of the EAPS is the ability to respond quickly to threats of a sharp increase in dumping imports. In order to improve the responsiveness to unfair competition in the EEA market, the FRTP initiated the consideration in the ECE of the issue of the automatic licensing (monitoring) of imports of certain types of steel pipes in the territory of the EAEC. The decision on this issue is currently being considered by the EEA member states.