Chinese Paper Companies Hit with Anti-Dumping Duties

Imports of coated fine paper (CFP) from Chinese paper mills have been slapped with provisional anti-dumping duties of up to 39.1% following an investigation by the European Commission.

The move, which resulted from a complaint by Cepifine, applies to CFP sheets (not rolls) of 70gsm to 400gsm and an ISO 2470-1 brightness of more than 84, for a provisional period of six months.

Asia Pulp and Paper's (APP) Gold East Paper (Jiangsu) and Gold Huasheng Paper (Suzhou) will face duties of 19.7% following the ruling, while exports from Chenming Paper Group and all other Chinese companies will carry a 39.1% tax.

The Commission ruled that CFP exports originating from China during the investigation period (1 Januray 2009 to 31 December 2009) were dumped in the EU at margins of up to 63% below the frontier price and that EU mills had "suffered material injury" as a result.

According to its investigation, dumped imports from China rose 183% during the period whilst the average price of those imports fell 8%, undercutting EU mills' prices by 5.6% on average. "This led to a loss in market share [for the EU industry] and a loss in profitability," the report said.

The commission added that Union paper producers "were not able to raise their CFP prices above cost-covering level" despite their own restructuring efforts and productivity improvements because of the undercutting by Chinese exporters.

"The surge of low-priced dumped imports from [China] had a considerable negative impact on the economic situation in the Union," it said.

A spokeswoman for Cepifine said the European paper companies will continue to cooperate with all EU trade authorities as they assess "the need and level of tariffs to redress any damage to European markets arising from illegal Chinese pricing and subsidies".

However, Stuart Andrews, manager, Europe, sustainability and stakeholder outreach at APP, said the company was disappointed with the outcome.

He said: "The investigation has been based on a number of flaws. We have serious doubts that the provisional findings include any positive evidence to support the allegation that competition from China has caused material injury to the complainants, as these companies are currently in good financial positions."

He added that increased competition in the CFP market was "key to innovation", and will encourage EU producers to build a low-cost position on very high productivity.

The EC said that, in calculating the duty necessary to remove the effects of dumping, it had assumed a profit margin of 8% of turnover as a minimum the EU producers could have obtained in the absence of dumping.