Trade Defence – China
Policy areas / Trade / Trade Defence – China
Trade Defence – China
Chinese overcapacities > 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 reinforcements (GFR) over the last years to flood the world market with undercutting subsidised products. In Europe, the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures on GFR originating from China have helped to restore a level playing field with Chinese producers. The continuation of the anti-dumping measures is currently under examination and will be decided in 2023.
Why is it important
Today, the Chinese GFR overcapacities are close to 100% of the European Union (EU) market demand (1.5 million tonnes). The two major Chinese State-owned companies, Jushi/Taishan and CPIC, have already announced a further capacity increase of 1.7 million tonnes in the coming years. 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 current measures imposed on imports of glass fibre reinforcements (GFR) from China are paramount to the survival of the European industry. Only the combined anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures on GFR imports from China can maintain fair competition between the EU production and the Chinese GFR imports. It is therefore essential to extend the current anti-dumping measures on GFR from China.
Supporting documents
