EU imposes duties on Chinese welding product

The European Union imposed five-year tariffs on a welding product from China to shield Austria?s Plansee Metall GmbH from cheaper imports.

The duties of as much as 63.5% on tungsten electrodes, used for welding in industries such as aerospace, automobiles, shipbuilding and oil and natural gas, punish Chinese exporters for selling in Europe below domestic prices or below the cost of production. The practice is known as ?dumping?. The aim is to “restore a level playing field that had been distorted by unfair trade practices,” the 27-nation EU said in a decision released today in Brussels.

The anti-dumping duties will take effect after being published in the Official Journal in the coming days and follow provisional EU tariffs introduced six months ago. Plansee Metall GmbH, which accounts for more than half the EU?s output of tungsten electrodes, suffered ?heavy price pressure? and ?injury? as a result of imports from China, the European Commission said in September when imposing the provisional duties.

China?s share of the EU tungsten-electrode market climbed to 76% in 2005 from 22% in 2001, according to the commission, the EU?s trade authority. The provisional duties were as high as 86.8% and the EU will refund the difference with any five-year levies that are lower. The five-year rates are 17% for Shandong Weldstone Tungsten Industry Co., 38.8% for Beijing Advanced Metal Materials Co., 41% for Shaanxi Yuheng Tungsten & Molybdenum Industrial Co. and 63.5% for all other Chinese manufacturers of the tungsten electrodes being targeted.