Posted July 19, 2017
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) made a unanimous preliminary determination that unfairly-traded imports of fine denier polyester staple fiber (PSF) from China, India, Korea and Taiwan are causing injury to U.S. producers.
The preliminary injury determination means that the antidumping duty cases against imports from China, India, Korea and Taiwan, along with the countervailing duty cases against China and India, will proceed.
Three major U.S. polyester fiber producers – DAK Americas LLC, Nan Ya Plastics Corporation, America and Auriga Polymers, Inc. – filed petitions with the ITC and the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) on May 31 alleging that dumped imports of fine denier PSF from all four countries, and subsidized imports of fine denier PSF from China and India, are causing material injury to the domestic industry.
Imports of fine denier PSF from the four subject countries increased by nearly 68 percent between 2014 and 2016. The import surge was driven by low import prices that undersold the domestic industry, causing U.S. producers to lose significant sales and profits.
"We are pleased with the results of the ITC's preliminary finding,” said Paul Rosenthal, of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, counsel to the petitioners. “This affirmative decision is a critical first step in providing relief to the domestic industry harmed by the flood of unfairly-traded imports of fine denier PSF from China, India, Korea and Taiwan,"
The product covered by the petition is fine denier polyester staple fiber, which is a synthetic staple fiber of polyesters measuring less than 3.3 decitex (3 denier) in diameter. Fine denier PSF is generally cut in lengths of less than five inches (127 mm). Fine denier PSF is similar in appearance to cotton or wool. It is typically converted either to yarn for weaving or knitting into fabric or to a non-woven textile prior to the end-use application.
Woven applications include the production of textiles such as clothing and bedding linens, for example. Nonwoven applications include the production of household and hygiene products such as cleaning wipes, baby wipes, and diapers.
The antidumping claim excluded Vietnam, which was included in an antidumping claim filed by the three companies last month last month, according to Alasdair Carmichael of PCI Wood Mackenzie.
“We have always felt that there has been some miscoding of imports from Vietnam as we believe that most of the imports are rPET staple of heavier deniers for fiberfill or nonwovens,” Carmichael wrote in a News Update report about the matter to members of the Synthetic Yarn and Fabric Association (SYFA). “The next step will be for the ITC to determine preliminary antidumping and CVD penalty rates, and importers will have to post a bond to bring any product into the USA. The time scale on this might be in October/November. The ITC will then go through a detailed study of individual companies from the various countries and will determine a final penalty rate by country and by company. We would expect this to be in Q1 or Q2 2018.”
Sources: Kelley Drye & Warren LLP and eTC reports
U.S. polyester producers applaud ITC ruling on fine-denier PSF
