US begins dumping investigation on PET from Brazil, Asia countries

HOUSTON (ICIS)–The US Department of Commerce will investigate whether polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin imports from Brazil, Indonesia, South Korea, Pakistan and Taiwan are being sold in the US at less than fair value, according to information obtained on Wednesday.

DAK Americas, Indorama Ventures, M&G Polymers and Nan Ya Plastics filed petitions on 26 September with the Commerce Department and the US International Trade Commission (ITC), saying that PET resin from these countries is being dumped in the US at less than fair value and causing damage to the domestic industry.

Indorama is not a petitioner in the Indonesia investigation.

The companies are seeking anti-dumping duties to be imposed on these imports.

The ITC will decide by 13 November whether the imports are harming the domestic market. If the ITC determines that they do cause harm, the commerce department will make preliminary anti-dumping determinations on 5 March 2018 and final determinations on 21 May.

Import volumes from these countries rose by more than 305% from 2014 to 2016, according to the petitions, and continued to increase in the first half of this year.

Major producers of US PET are Indorama, DAK, Nan Ya and Mossi & Ghisolfi.