EU imposes six-month tariffs on U.S. VAM producers including Dow, LyondellBasell, Celanese, effective Aug. 18

Alison Gallant

LOS ANGELES , August 18, 2011 (Industry Intelligence) – The European Union is levying antidumping tariffs against U.S. vinyl acetate exporters in order to protect two European producers, Bloomberg reported Aug. 17.

The European Commission said in a statement in the EU Official Journal that Munich-based Wacker Chemie AG and U.K.-based Ineos Oxide Ltd. experienced “material injury” due to the volume of VAM commodity sold in the European market by U.S. manufacturers at below cost.

The commission asserted that U.S. producers such as The Dow Chemical Co., LyondellBasell Acetyls LLC and Celanese Ltd. grew their combined European market share from 103,192 tonnes to 152,445 tonnes from 2007 through September 2010.

Celanese will see a tariff of 12.1% against its product, LyondellBasell Acetyls will see a 13% tariff while Dow will be hit with the highest tariff of 13.8%.

The tariffs will go into effect Aug. 18 and will last for a period of six months, with the possibility of extention to five years.

The tariffs come as a result of a complaint filed by Ineos Oxide and supported by Wacker, which led to an investigation by the commission.

The primary source of this article is Bloomberg, New York, New York, Aug. 17, 2011.

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