Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Resin pricing news
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • K Show
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Processor of the Year
    • Best Places to Work
    • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Rising Stars
    • Diversity
    • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • Pellets and Politics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • K Show Livestream
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Resin Prices
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
April 01, 2015 02:00 AM

Commerce Department agrees to investigate PET dumping complaint

Frank Esposito
Senior Staff Reporter
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print

    UPDATED — A flood of alleged low-priced PET resin imports has led three U.S. PET makers to seek anti-dumping duties.

    On March 10, PET makers DAK Americas, M&G Group and Nan Ya Plastics Corp. asked the U.S. Commerce Department and the U.S. International Trade Commission to impose anti-dumping and countervailing duties on PET imported from Canada, China, India and Oman.

    On March 31 the Commerce Department said it would investigate the complaint.

    Those four countries accounted for almost 53 percent of PET imported into the United States in 2014, according to a fact sheet released by Charlotte, N.C.-based DAK. Between 2012 and 2014, imports from those countries increased almost 44 percent to 725 million pounds.

    “Subject imports captured an increasing share of the U.S. market during the 2012-14 period, while the domestic industry's market share declined,” DAK officials said in the fact sheet.

    The value of imported PET from those countries increased almost 13 percent to $434 million between 2012 and 2014, according to the fact sheet, while the average unit value fell 13 percent to 60 cents per pound in that same comparison.

    “As a result of the unfair competition from subject imports, the domestic industry suffered declines in production, sales and employment and in their financial performance,” DAK officials said.

    The entire investigation process is expected to take about a year, officials added, with final determinations coming in spring 2016.

    In a bit of irony, the filing comes almost exactly 10 years after ITC declined to place duties on PET imports from India, Indonesia and Thailand. At the time, market watchers cited higher 2004 profits in the U.S. PET market as a reason duties may have been rejected.

    In an interview at NPE 2015 in Orlando, Fla., DAK executive John Cullen said the industry can document that the four countries named in the filing have been selling PET resin below fair market value, with some of that resin made at government-subsidized plants.

    “We have to prove injury to the PET industry,” he said. “In 2004, the government found that there was dumping, but they said that we couldn't show harm. This time, unfortunately, we can.”

    Last year, DAK closed its PET resin and feedstocks plant in Wilmington, N.C.

    North American PET resin demand is declining as consumers drink fewer carbonated soft drinks — the material's largest end market — and as lightweighting allows less resin to be user per bottle for soft drinks, water and other beverages.

    In spite of this trend, PET makers M&G and Indorama Ventures Public Co. Ltd. each have announced plans to add capacity in the region, partly because of access to affordable feedstocks.

    Resin market analysts Phil Karig and Thomas Kelliher said that PET makers might have their work cut out for them in trying to fight the alleged dumping.

    “There's a lot of leeway for the U.S. Department of Commerce to estimate these metrics on the basis of incomplete information or information that's not strictly comparable between countries,” said Karig, managing director of Mathelin Bay Associates LLC in St. Louis. “For example, lacking detailed information on market prices and production costs in China, a dumping determination might be made by comparing averages that confuse fiber and bottle grade PET prices and production economics.”

    Karig added that the companies filing anti-dumping petitions “also often fill their legal briefs with information that can add to the confusion.”

    “In this filing, the petitioners emphasized that PET imports in the last few years have caused what they refer to as ‘anemic' capacity utilization of 74 percent in the U.S.” he said. “What they failed to emphasize is that continuing ‘thin-walling' of water bottles and increased use of recycled PET have also had a big impact on capacity utilization rates. In addition, capacity utilization rates in the U.S. have been mired in the 70s for most of the past decade and domestic producers are partly responsible since they increased domestic PET capacity by more than 15 percent over the same time period.”

    Kelliher, who is with Resin Technology Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas, added that “the way the PET landscape has shifted in the U.S., becoming more integrated and efficient, the U.S. will have some of the lowest cost PET and will be more competitive with imports.”

     

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Patio doors get a boost with new production, designs
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    Plan to extend chemical recycling in Illinois hits roadblock
    2
    Biden sets US goal to replace 90% of plastics with biomaterials
    3
    Redline's ‘outrageous cultural behaviors' retain top employees
    4
    Industry sees Biden bioplastics goal as serious signal
    5
    Trinseo: Equipment failure blamed for latex emulsion leak
    SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE NEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Tire Business
    • Urethanes Technology
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • K Show
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • Processor of the Year
        • Best Places to Work
        • Women Breaking the Mold
        • Rising Stars
        • Diversity
        • Most Interesting Social Media Accounts in Plastics
      • Newsletters
      • Resin pricing news
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • Pellets and Politics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • K Show Livestream
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • PN Live: Mergers and Acquisitions
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Resin Prices
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified