The European Commission has officially announced imposition of provisional anti-dumping duties on fused alumina imports from China. This time, it is a move to resolve to protect Europe’s domestic industry from market distortions. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/1456, adopted on July 17, 2025, delivers a stern warning to China’s state-backed industrial juggernaut: unfair trade practices will no longer be overlooked.
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At the core of the Commission’s decision lies the recognition that fused alumina, rather commonly known as artificial corundum, derived from melting bauxite or aluminium oxide at over 2,000 °C, has been imported from China at dumped prices, causing material injury to the European Union’s domestic producers. The action follows a formal complaint by Imerys S.A., lodged in October 2024, It is a broader defence of Europe’s abrasive and refractory industries from the repercussions of underpriced, state-supported Chinese imports.
A rigorous case built on systemic distortions
The Commission’s findings are grounded in a comprehensive investigation, which concluded that prices and production costs in China are significantly slanted by state interference, rendering them unfit to serve as a basis for determining normal value under EU trade law. Instead, the Commission resorted to constructing a normal value based on undistorted prices from a representative market economy.
This choice triggered criticism from EU-based stakeholders. German importer Reckel GmbH, Austria’s Tyrolit, and the Verband Deutscher Schleifmittelwerke e.V. (VDS), citing its small number of producers, limited competitive environment, and dissimilar raw material conditions compared to China. These stakeholders argued for Brazil or India as more appropriate benchmarks. However, the Commission ultimately maintained that its methodology was robust and that Mexico met the criteria under Article 2(6a) of the EU Basic Regulation.
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