When considering slapping tariffs and steel imports into the United States, two large local pipe and tube producers are hoping the Bush administration doesn't forget about them.

Lee Hopper, president and chief executive officer of Sharon Tube Co. and Jim Fennel, former president of Wheatland Tube Co., testified last week before the International Trade Commission. In an interview after giving their testimony, both men agreed their industry needs help.

"Our job was to demonstrate how much injury is being caused to our industry,'' Feeney said.

The commission held two weeks of hearings as part of an investigation requested by the Bush administration. If the panel finds "serious injury" from imports, it could make recommendations to President Bush on what types of punitive tariffs or quotas should be imposed to restrict imports.

The panel is scheduled to vote on Oct. 22 on whether imports caused damage to the American industry. It will hold hearings about possible remedies in November.

Both men told the six-member commission they supported tariffs on flat-roll steel, but if that were to happen and pipe and tube products didn't get similar relief, the industry would be decimated.

"We have our own problems with imports,'' Hooper said. "If tariffs are put on flat-roll, those same countries will switch to making pipe.''

Pipe and tube imports account for about 58 percent of sales in the U.S., according to the Committee on Pipe and Tube Imports. Sharon Tube and Wheatland Tube are members of the Washington, D.C.-based trade group. The two local companies are members of CPTI while the other large local pipe and tube maker, AK Steel, Sawhill Tubular Division, is not.

The last time tariffs were imposed on steel products was in 1984. It was only after American pipe and tube producers pleaded with the Reagan administration to include their industry that the government relented.

"If we hadn't been included, it would have eradicated Wheatland Tube and the rest of the welded pipe and tube industry,'' Feeney said. "This situation is very much similar to 1984.''

Imports have crimped Sharon Tube to the point where the company, overall, is operating at 55 percent of capacity, Hooper said.

Both believe their message got through.

"I think the Bush administration sees the dire situation the steel industry is in,'' Hooper said.

Although the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks changed many national priorities, Hooper and Feeney said they were comforted their appeal isn't going to get lost.

"This really does have a priority,'' Hooper said.