Brussels, 04/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - The EU has decided to extend the anti-dumping duties levied on imports of powdered activated carbon (PAC) originating in China. It expects the dumping current carried out to continue after the expiry of duties established in 1996, to the detriment of Community industry which remains in a precarious situation despite undoubted improvement over the past five years.
The investigation carried out by the European Commission showed that the existing duties did not put off Chinese operators from dumping their products on the European market, at a margin of more than 40% as against the normal price of PAC (used in gas and water purification, decolourisation of sugar, vegetable oils and fats an solvent recovery). Hence there is a strong likelihood that the dumping will continue if the European surcharges were removed, notes the Council regulation published in Official Journal L155. Likewise, it is likely that expiry of the duties, which enabled EU industry to recover its profitability and relieved some of the price pressure exerted by the Chinese dumping practices, would encourage Chinese competitors to offload considerable volumes (at least 10,000 tonnes of PAC) on the single market at prices well below EU industry's prices. Experts believe the difference from EU industry's prices (15% at the moment) could rise to at least 30%. They fear the favourable situation in which the EU industry currently finds itself could rapidly deteriorate if Chinese companies were again allowed to offload in Europe greatly increased quantities of PAC at very low prices so the decision was taken to extend the anti-dumping duties for five more years at the rate of EUR 323 per tonne.
Other Chinese products already subject to anti-dumping duties are also in the Commission's firing line - it recently began re-examining them to ensure they effectively tackle Chinese dumping practices. Products currently being assessed are sintered magnesite, magnesium oxide, ferrosilicomanganese (from the Ukraine too), shoes (also from Indonesia and Thailand), aloxite, potassium permanganate, disposable gas cigarette lighters with flints (also from Taiwan) and non-alloyed magnesium and fluorspar (see Official Journal C140).