On September 15, the European Union imposed a final anti-dumping ruling on ceramic tiles originating in China, imposing a punitive tariff of up to 69.7% on Chinese ceramics exported to the European Union until 2016. "The association is now an emergency team, visiting companies to learn about the processing of existing orders." Blue Weibing, director of Foshan Office of China Ceramic Industry Association, was discussing the current crisis of China's ceramics industry with several ceramic enterprise personages when he received a telephone call from reporters. At the same time, the Association sent people to the European Union yesterday for final communication.
In the industry view, the case has a long history. Last June, the European Union launched an anti-dumping investigation on ceramic tiles originating in China, involving more than $320 million. In March this year, the anti-dumping preliminary results came out, and punitive tariffs amounted to 73%. According to the Blue Guard, 80% of EU purchasers have begun to wait and see after the initial cuts. This also directly led to a 16.5% year-on-year decline in China's ceramics exports to the European Union from January to July, compared with the previous year's growth of more than 20% year-on-year.
Even so, in addition to a small number of Chinese ceramic enterprises responding to the initial ruling, most enterprises have been in a wait-and-see state. Those who are not active will eventually face greater losses. According to the final ruling, except for 6 enterprises with separate tax rates ranging from 26.3% to 36.5%, and more than 100 enterprises participating in the survey with weighted average tax rates of 30.6%, other enterprises were levied a punitive tariff of 69.7% with a validity period of up to five years.
The export of China's tiles will face a serious blow. According to the statistics of Chinese Customs, the EU has become the third largest exporter of Chinese ceramic tiles, accounting for 8%-9.5% of China's total ceramic tile exports and 10%-12% of China's total export value. "The European Union is the distribution center of world brands, the European Union has started this stage, other countries are likely to conduct anti-dumping investigations on us." In the view of Chen Yanbin, chairman of GF ceramics, the EU wants to take the opportunity to suppress China's ceramic industry.
It is understood that since last year, besides the European Union, China's ceramics have been subject to anti-dumping lawsuits in Korea, Argentina and Peru. Chen Yanbin believes that after the final ruling is issued, more countries may file anti-dumping cases against China's ceramic tiles in the future. 69.7% of punitive tariffs have become a reality, and how to break through has become a top priority. Daily Economic News learned that some ceramics companies have begun to consider relocating production bases to countries with lower costs to avoid the threshold of the European Union. Chen Yanbin said that his company is in contact with the European Union's general distributors, hoping that the production base will be settled in the European Union or South Korea as soon as possible, so as to minimize the impact of anti-dumping.