A new anti-dumping measure of up to 83.5% could be applied to imports of excavators from China to the UK, a measure said to be worth up to £3.4 million a year to UK manufacturers.
Trade Remedies Authority Chief Exec Oliver Griffiths said excavator production was an important component of the UK’s Advanced Manufacturing sector, and UK producers were being undercut significantly by dumped imports from China.”
The TRA opened its investigation in response to an application from JCB, a Staffordshire-based multinational business. The TRA estimated that during the period of investigation, UK excavator producers employed around 900 workers and had a turnover of around £500 million.
Around 180,000 tonnes of excavators were sold in the UK during the period of investigation, with the UK industry supplying between 10-25% of this volume. The UK industry’s market share decreased by 11% over the injury period.
The TRA found that Chinese exporters were able to use reduced production costs to price their exports below UK competitors who did not benefit from an artificially-low cost base, undercutting UK prices by more than 23%.
The TRA also found Chinese excavators had been subsidised, and that their importation to the UK has caused injury to the UK’s excavator industry.
As a result, the TRA has made an initial recommendation to impose a countervailing duty on imported Chinese excavators weighing 11 tonnes or more, but less than 80 tonnes. The duty would range from 0% to 2.93% and would be in addition to the anti-dumping duty already proposed.
