Chinese Refrigerants Face US Duties of 210%

USA: The US Department of Commerce has called for anti-dumping duties of up to 210% on imports of certain HFC refrigerants from China. This preliminary determination was announced by the Department of Commerce at the end of last week after backing the petition filed last June by the American HFC Coalition that the refrigerants are being sold in the US at unfairly low prices. US anti-dumping laws provide an internationally accepted mechanism to seek relief from the market distorting effects caused by injurious dumping of imports into the USA. Mandatory Chinese respondents Huantai Dongyue International Trade Co Ltd/Shandong Dongyue Chemical Co Ltd and TT International Co Ltd. received preliminary dumping margins of 92.88% and 91.99%, respectively. The parties which qualified for separate rates received a preliminary dumping margin of 92.60%. All other producers/exporters in China received a preliminary dumping margin of 210.46%. This preliminary finding will only go into effect if the US International Trade Commission affirms its preliminary finding that US refrigerant producers are being harmed by the alleged refrigerant dumping. The Commerce Department is due to finalise its decision on dumping margins on June 13, with the ITC making a final ruling on July 28. The petition filed last June followed unilateral attempts by refrigerant producer Mexichem to have anti-dumping duties imposed on Chinese imports of R134a. In June last year Mexichem joined with fellow producers Honeywell, Chemours, Arkema and others in the American HFC Coalition to petition against what they saw as injurious dumping by Chinese companies of a range of refrigerants including R404A, R507A, R407A, R407C, R410A, R32, R125 and R143a.