Antidumping Petition Filed on Activiated Carbon From China
Two U.S. producers of activated carbon products, Calgon Carbon Corporation of Pittsburgh, PA and Norit Americas Inc. of Marshall, TX, today filed an antidumping duty petition on activated carbon from the People's Republic of China (PRC). The petition alleges that imports of activated carbon from the PRC increased from 61.6 million pounds in 2002 to 84.1 million pounds in 2004 and that PRC imports represented between 53 and 59% of all imports between 2002 and 2004, making it the largest source of imported activated carbon.
"Activated carbon" is defined in the petition as a black carbon material obtained by "activating" various materials containing high levels of carbon (including but not limited to coal, wood and coconut shells) by heating them and/or treating them with chemicals which create a vast internal pore structure in the carbon material. Typical uses of activated carbon include removing objectionable tastes and odors from drinking water; reducing organic compounds in waste water; removing color and impurities from foods, pharmaceuticals, wine, liquor, fruit juices and chemicals; removing color from raw sugar in the refining stage; removing mercury and dioxins from flue gas emissions; and capturing gasoline vapor and recovering solvents.
Update: Less than a week before this petition was filed Calgon Carbon, one of the two petitioners in this case, announced that it had opened a "state-of-the art" activated carbon processing and packaging facility in Tianjin, China that will be operated by Calgon Carbon Company Tianjin Limited (CCT), a wholly owned subsidiary of Calgon Carbon Corporation.
Labels: Antidumping
It is ironic that the largest exporter of carbon from China(Calgon) and importer into the USA files a petition. The other ironic thing about this is that the price of carbon from China has gone up over the past two years, "not down."
This petition is about margins, not unfair international business practices.
Posted by Anonymous | 5:56 PM
The ITC will certainly find that information useful when making their injury determinations.
As you are aware, the mere filing of an antidumping petition usually leads to higher prices in the domestic market caused by the uncertainty in the marketplace over the prospect of dumping duties being levied in the future.
Posted by Douglas N. Jacobson | 6:19 PM