U.S. Producers of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Resin File Trade Petitions Against Five Countries

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, four major U.S. plastics producers – DAK Americas LLC, Indorama Ventures USA, Inc., M&G Polymers USA, LLC, and Nan Ya Plastics Corporation, America – filed petitions alleging that imports of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin from Brazil, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, and Taiwan are being sold at less than fair value in the United States and causing material injury to the domestic industry. The four petitioning domestic producers asked the U.S. government to investigate the dumping and injury, and to impose antidumping duties on the imports of PET resin from the subject countries.

The petitions allege that producers in each of the five countries are dumping PET resin in the U.S. market at sizeable margins:

The petitions were filed concurrently with the United States Department of Commerce ("Commerce Department") and the United States International Trade Commission ("USITC"). The filing is in response to surging volumes of aggressively-priced PET resin imports from Brazil, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, and Taiwan. Subject import volume increased from 148.0 million pounds in 2014 to 599.8 million pounds in 2016, or by over 305 percent over that three-year period. PET resin from the subject countries continued to rapidly enter the U.S. market in the first half of 2017. The subject imports undersold the domestic industry, taking sales from and exerting considerable downward pricing pressure on U.S. producers. 

As a result of increasing volumes of low-priced imports, the condition of the domestic industry has suffered. U.S. producers have experienced declining production and shipment volumes and deteriorating financial performance as a result of the lost sales and price depression caused by the subject imports. Foreign producers of PET resin also continue to threaten the domestic industry with additional injury due to their massive and growing production capacity and extensive unused capacity that will be used to export large volumes of unfairly low-priced product to the United States. The injury to the domestic PET resin industry is likely to continue if duties are not imposed to offset these unfair trading practices.

"The substantial increase in unfairly-traded PET resin from these five subject countries has hit the domestic industry hard and threatens the livelihoods of American workers," according to Paul Rosenthal of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, counsel for the petitioning companies. "U.S. PET resin producers are seeking the trade relief that is badly needed for the recovery and future success of the industry in the United States."

FACT SHEET

Antidumping duties: Antidumping duties are intended to offset the amount by which a product is sold at less than fair value, or "dumped," in the United States. The margin of dumping is calculated by the Commerce Department. Estimated duties in the amount of the dumping are collected from importers at the time of importation. The USITC, an independent agency, will determine whether the domestic industry is materially injured or threatened with material injury by reason of the unfairly-traded imports.

Next steps: The Commerce Department will determine whether to initiate the antidumping duty investigations within 20 days of today's filing of the petitions and the USITC will reach a preliminary determination of material injury or threat of material injury within 45 days of today's filing. The entire investigative process will take approximately one year, with final determinations of dumping and injury likely occurring by the Fall of 2018.

Product description: The product covered by the petition is certain polyester terephthalate (PET) resin, which is a large-volume, thermoplastic polyester polymer resin. The PET resin that is the subject of the petition has an intrinsic viscosity (IV) of 0.70 or more, but not more than 0.88, deciliters per gram. PET resin is primarily sold in bulk form as chips or pellets to downstream end users/converters. Chips or pellets of certain PET resin are heated to a molten liquid, which is then extruded or molded into plastic bottles, containers, and packaging. The major end-uses for certain PET resin include beverage bottles, food containers, and packaging for household, cosmetics, automotive, and pharmaceutical products. PET resin may also be extruded into sheets of various thicknesses and thermoformed into clear packaging and containers (cupcake trays, vegetable containers, strawberry clamshells, drinking cups, etc.), and into high-strength strapping for industrial uses to wrap shipping containers, bales of lumber, and other bulky objects.     

Petitioning companies: The petitioning companies are DAK Americas LLC, Indorama Ventures USA, Inc., M&G Polymers USA, LLC, and Nan Ya Plastics Corporation, America, represented by Kelley Drye & Warren LLP.

SOURCE Kelley Drye & Warren LLP