United States. The U.S. Department of Commerce has requested anti-dumping taxes of up to 210% on imports of certain HFC refrigerants from China.
This preliminary determination was announced days ago by the Commerce Department after endorsing the petition filed last June by the American HFC Coalition that refrigerants are sold in the U.S. at unfairly low prices.
Anti-dumping laws provide an internationally accepted mechanism to seek relief from the distorted market effects caused by dumping on imports into the U.S.
Chinese mandatory respondents International Trade Co Ltd/Shandong Dongyue Chemical Co Ltd and TT International Co Ltd. received preliminary dumping margins of 92.88 per cent and 91.99 per cent, respectively. Parties that qualified for separate tariffs received a preliminary dumping margin of 92.60%. The rest of the producers/exporters in China received a preliminary dumping margin of 210.46%.
This preliminary finding will only take effect if the U.S. International Trade Commission affirms its preliminary conclusion that U.S. refrigerant producers are being harmed by alleged refrigerant dumping. The Commerce Department is due to finalize its decision on dumping margins on June 13, with the ITC making a final decision on July 28.
The petition filed last June followed unilateral attempts by refrigerant producer Mexichem to have anti-dumping taxes on Chinese imports of R134a. In June last year Mexichem joined with other producers such as Honeywell, Chemours, Arkema and others in the American HFC Coalition for a petition against what they saw as the dumping by Chinese companies of a range of refrigerants including R404A, R507A, R407A, R407C, R410A, R32, R125 and R143a.
