A Chinese steel industry body on Friday refuted US steel firms' accusations that steel pipes from China are being sold at unfairly low and subsidized prices.

Six US makers of welded standard steel pipes and the United Steelworkers union on Thursday appealed to the Commerce Department to impose anti-dumping duties of up to 88 percent on Chinese steel pipes and extra unspecified duties to offset alleged subsidies.

"Their allegations are groundless. Chinese steel producers never dump steel pipes in the United States and never gain subsidies from the government," said Qi Xiangdong, deputy secretary-general of the China Iron & Steel Association.

Qi stressed that the prices of Chinese steel pipes in the US are in line with international levels.

US steel pipe companies blamed the loss of more than 500 jobs and the closure of four US plants on a hike of 6,800 percent in imports of Chinese steel pipes between 2002 and 2006.

The US International Trade Commission will make a preliminary determination in July on whether imports from China are hurting US companies.

However, Li Xinchuang, vice-president of the China Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute, said US steel pipe producers are seeking "scapegoats" for their own problems.

"The US steel sector is weakening due to low productivity and backWard equipment which can't meet strong domestic demand," Li said.

Matthew McConkey, an international trade lawyer at the Beijing office of US-British law firm DLA Piper, said: "The US (steel) industry wrongly believes that it should immediately take advantage of the protectionist laws of the US to shield themselves from aggressive, yet fair, competition from China."

China has taken a number of measures to control steel exports since last year.

On June 1, the nation levied 5-10 percent export tariffs on 82 categories of steel products and raise duties on overseas shipment of another 19 categories to 15 percent from 10.

The China Iron & Steel Association predicted growth of steel exports will decelerate sharply in the remainder of this year from a sizzling pace in the first four months as a result of control measures. The country's January-April exports of finished steel products rocketed 132 percent year-on-year to 21.3 million tons.