Nan Ya files trade petition in US against Korea & Taiwan

The company has also urged the government to impose antidumping duties on the imports of low melt PSF from Korea and Taiwan.

The petition alleges that producers in Korea are dumping low melt PSF in the US market at margins of 32.95 to 45.84 per cent. The petition further alleges that producers in Taiwan are dumping low melt PSF in the US market at margins of 30.24 to 62.52 per cent.

The petitions were filed concurrently with the US department of commerce and the US International Trade Commission (USITC).

The filing is in response to surging volumes of aggressively-priced low melt PSF imports from Korea and Taiwan. Subject import volume increased from 151.4 million pounds in 2014 to 199.1 million pounds in 2016, or by over 31 per cent over that three-year period, and continued to rise in the first quarter of 2017. The imports undersold the domestic industry, taking sales from and exerting considerable downward pricing pressure on US producers.

As a result of increasing volumes of low-priced imports, the condition of the domestic industry has suffered. The domestic industry has experienced declining production and shipment volumes and deteriorating financial performance as a result of the lost sales and price depression caused by the imports. Korean and Taiwanese producers of low melt PSF also continue to threaten the domestic industry with additional injury due to their large and growing production capacity and extensive unused capacity that will be used to export large volumes of unfairly low-priced and subsidised product to the US. The injury to the domestic low melt PSF industry is likely to continue if duties are not imposed to offset these foreign producers' unfair trading practices.

"The U.S. companies producing low melt polyester staple fibre have suffered for years against rising volumes of dumped imports from Korea and Taiwan. The domestic industry needs trade relief from unfair import competition so that the business can thrive and continue providing critical manufacturing jobs in the US," said Paul Rosenthal of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, counsel for Nan Ya.

The commerce department will determine whether to initiate the antidumping and countervailing duty investigations within 20 days of filing of the petitions and the USITC will reach a preliminary determination of material injury or threat of material injury within 45 days of filing. The entire investigative process will take approximately one year, with final determinations of dumping, subsidisation, and injury likely occurring by the middle of 2018. (KD)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India