Trade Defence – China
Policy areas / Trade / Trade Defence – China
Trade Defence – China
Chinese overcapacities > 2x total EU market demand
In brief
Chinese overcapacities are the root cause of market distortions and extreme pressure on the European industry. China has been building up excess capacities of glass fibre products over the last years to flood the world market with undercutting subsidised products. In Europe, the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures on certain glass fibre products originating from China have helped to restore a level playing field with Chinese producers to some extent. In July 2023, the European Commission has confirmed the continuation of the anti-dumping measures for certain glass fibre products for five years.
Why is it important
Today, the Chinese glass fibre overcapacities are above 100% of the European Union (EU) market demand. The two major Chinese State-owned companies, Jushi/Taishan and CPIC, have already announced further capacity increases in the coming years. If the announced capacity increases take place, Chinese overcapacities would amount to more than 200% of the EU market demand. In the absence of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures, the Chinese producers will direct even more of their overcapacities to the EU market. The EU industry would rapidly lose sales volumes, and face increased fixed costs per unit and major losses. As a result, the EU producers would not be able to make the investments necessary to rebuild the furnaces at the end of their lifetime, leading to production shutdowns
Our view
In the face of major subsidised overcapacities, the continuation of the current measures imposed on imports of certain glass fibre reinforcements from China was paramount to the survival of the European industry. These and new measures will be necessary to protect the European glass fibre sector from unfair trade practices, to ensure its viability and to enable it to play a vital role in the value chains strategic for the achievement of Europe’s net-zero, REPowerEU and resilience objectives.
Supporting documents
