Imports from China, US and Saudi Arabia will see tariffs of 52–143%
The European Commission has presented a huge antidumping duties on imports of 1,4-butadiene (BDO), an crucial intermediate molecule in chemical production. The provisional duties are 106%–114% on all imports originating in China, 52% for all imports from Saudi Arabia and 136%–143% on all imports originating in the US.
‘This marks as a fundamental shift in the EU scaling up its defenses towards dumping,’ stated that Richard Carter, an independent consultant to the chemical industry and former BASF manager. ‘My expectation is that begin of a more aggressive stance.’
The commission 70-page report outlines the evidence and decision to apply duties. BDO is utilized in various coatings, polymers and solvents. Four corporations generate BDO within the EU directly, employing around 500 employees in Germany, the Netherlands and Italy. The amount of imports from the 3-nations expanded from around 49,000 tons in 2018 to around 89,000 tons in 2024, an expansion of 82%. Ineos (one of the 4-EU manufacturers) has filed a raft of antidumping cases with the European Commission, along with for BDO.
The issue, stated Carter, is the accumulation of large overcapacity in China, permitting Chinese manufacturers set prices that others must observe. Chinese capacity is now 9-time bigger than the EU, he mentions. ‘This is a part of an onslaught to dominate western chemical markets, in my opinion,’ says Carter. ‘Trade flows demonstrates that European manufacturers have almost closed their plants and are bringing in BDO from their own facilities within the US.’
Ineos has also filed complaints for polyvinyl chloride, monoethylene gylcol, terephthalic acid, butyl acetate and polyolefins. In a past statement, it complained about the staffing stages and the response times in the commission’s antidumping investigations.
Anti-dumping investigations usually run for 12 to 15 months. ‘It will take 3-6 months for the provisional duties to be applied, then another 6-9 months for the final duties to be applied, if surpassed,’ stated Mohamed Chilmeran, petrochemical analyst at Wood Mackenzie.
Parties advised the Commission that EU industry was clearly not competitive sufficient because of its high costs, but this was rejected. The industry was profitable in 2021 and 2022. ‘The root cause of the injury was into growing volumes of dumped imports from the nations involved,’ stated the report, ‘which depressed BDO prices to ranges which did not allow the Union industry to recover its costs and elevated the cost of manufacturing per unit of the Union from lower sales and manufacturing levels.’
