Celanese Corporation has filed a petition with the European Commission’s Directorate-General For Trade requesting an anti-dumping investigation to be opened.
The chemical and specialty materials company is seeking anti-dumping duties on imports of Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) from Korea Petrochemical Industry Co., Ltd. (KPIC) of Seoul, South Korea, into the European Union.
Celanese previously filed an anti-dumping case in the U.S., which will be investigated by the U.S. authorities.
Fair and sustainable pricing on a global basis is important for the health of every industry, and in the long term, this will lead to increased supply availability in the marketplace, said Tom Kelly, Senior Vice President of the Engineered Materials business of Celanese.
“In order to further ensure Celanese is able to operate in fair and sustainable industry conditions globally, we were compelled to also file an anti-dumping case against KPIC in Europe to address their destructive pricing practices in that region which have caused Celanese’s UHMWPE business to suffer significantly over the last several years since KPIC began selling in the region,” he said.
UHMWPE is a linear polyethylene, supplied in granular or powder form. GUR, the Celanese trade name for its UHMWPE product, is a core business and growing market. The company plans to continue to support market growth of this product by investing in its global manufacturing capabilities.
Under European law, a domestic industry can petition the government to initiate an anti-dumping investigation into the pricing of an imported product to determine whether it is sold at less than fair value – in other words, ‘dumped’.
Additional duties can be imposed if the European Commission determines that imported goods are dumped and further determines that the domestic industry is materially injured or threatened with such injury by reason of subject imports.
If the European Commission makes preliminary affirmative determinations, European importers will be required to pay provisional anti-dumping duties in the amount of the anti-dumping duty for all entries on or after the date the European Commission preliminary determination is published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
The preliminary anti-dumping rates can change in the European Commission’s final determination, especially if foreign producers participate fully in the investigation.