China has abolished anti-dumping duties (ADDs) on PVC imports from the US, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, ending a 16-year anti-dumping policy in the industry.
The commerce ministry (MoC) announced the cancellation yesterday but said it was effective on 30 September, a year after the government announced a review of the policy.
The MoC did not say why it has ended the duties, which were first imposed in 2003. But China's domestic PVC industry has grown significantly since then and its self-sufficiency rate has kept increasing. Chinese PVC production capacity is now at 25mn t/yr including paste, or 43pc of the global total.
But China is still a net PVC importer. It imported 501,735t and exported 415,181t of PVC powder during January-September this year.
China mainly imports PVC from the US, Taiwan and Japan under third-party processing deals for re-export, which exempt the imported material from the ADDs. The cancellation of the ADDs may increase imports under general trade terms.
The cancellation of the PVC anti-dumping policy is likely to increase import volumes to China, although US suppliers will need to pay restrictive tariffs because of the continuing US-China trade war.
Taiwan-origin PVC looks likely to benefit from its proximity to China, but Japan-origin product is not as competitive as its rivals because of its lack of any new production capacity.
