China aluminum-foil makers face threat of wider EU duties

The European Union threatened to widen tariffs on heavy rolls of aluminum foil from China, highlighting the Chinese challenge to manufacturers in Europe.

The EU began an inquiry into whether Chinese exporters of aluminum foil in rolls weighing more than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and with a thickness of less than 0.021 millimeter sell the wrapping in the bloc below cost, a practice known as dumping.

The EU already applies anti-dumping duties on aluminum foil from China in rolls weighing more than 10 kilograms and as wide as 650 millimeters (25.6 inches), with a thickness between 0.008 millimeter and 0.018 millimeter. This foil is excluded from the probe announced today.

The investigation will determine whether rolls from China weighing more than 10 kilograms and with a thickness of less than 0.021 millimeter are “being dumped and whether the dumped imports have caused injury” to EU producers, the European Commission, the 28-nation bloc’s trade authority in Brussels, said in the Official Journal.

The commission has nine months to decide whether to impose provisional anti-dumping duties for half a year and 15 months to decide whether to apply “definitive” levies for five years.

The case stems from an Oct. 28 complaint made on behalf of six European producers that account for more than a quarter of the EU’s output of the type of aluminum foil covered by the probe, the commission said. It didn’t identify the companies.

The current EU anti-dumping duties on rolls of aluminum foil from China weighing more than 10 kilograms and as wide as 650 millimeters, with a thickness between 0.008 millimeter and 0.018 millimeter, were introduced in 2009 to aid producers including Poland’s Grupa Kety SA, Novelis U.K. Ltd., Greece’s Symetal Aluminium Foil Industry SA and Bulgaria’s Alcomet.

Two months ago, the commission began an investigation into whether to renew those levies, which also apply to Brazil. The duty rates against China are between 6.4 percent and 30 percent, depending on the Chinese exporter.

The renewal was requested by a group of companies including Alcomet, Symetal, Eurofoil Luxembourg SA and Hydro Aluminium Rolled Products GmbH, the commission said at the time.

In addition to the existing duties on aluminum-foil rolls from China weighing more than 10 kilograms, the EU applies a separate set of anti-dumping levies against China on rolls that don’t exceed 10 kilograms.