European glass fibre producers lodge an anti-dumping complaint calling on the Commission to apply anti-dumping duties on production passing through the Belt and Road Initiative.
European glass fibre producers have lodged an anti-dumping complaint against Chinese manufacturers operating out of Egypt alleging that they benefit from unfair subsidies and calling for duties to be applied, according to two sources familiar with the issue.
The case will be closely watched coming days before US President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated. Trump has threatened to impose heavy tariffs on Chinese products, and European manufacturers fear that there may be corresponding increases of deflected Chinese imports to Europe via other ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ routes.
The complaint follows a decision by the European Court of Justice last year which found that the European Commission is allowed under EU law to consider that subsidies granted by the Government of China could be attributed to the Government of Egypt and therefore countervailed in an investigation of imports from Egypt.
“This investigation is crucial. They have set up these companies in an economic zone that amounts to an extension of the Chinese territory abroad, enabling them to circumvent the anti-dumping measures taken in 2014 against companies established in China,” Cedric Janssen, the secretary-general of industry body Glass Fibre Europe, told Euronews, adding: “As a result, China’s glass fibre capacity is expanding both domestically and abroad, leading to a surge in undercutting imports on the European market.”
For more than a decade, European glass fibre manufacturers have been fighting Chinese imports that they deem unfair. In 2020 the Commission imposed 13.1% anti-subsidy duties against imports coming from Chinese companies based in Egypt.
Challenged before the European judges, these anti-subsidy measures were confirmed on 28 November 2024 by the ECJ, which recognised cross-border subsidies as subsidies under European Law, since the Chinese companies operates in an economic zone, in Egypt, created by an agreement of the local government and China through the Belt and Road Initiative.
The Asian giant has invested $1 trillion through this initiative which crosses over 150 countries and which provides massive subsidies outside of China for infrastructure, transport, mining of raw materials and relocation of industries and state-owned enterprises abroad.
“13,1% of anti-subsidy duties is not enough to stop the flow of imports. We are asking the Commission to launch an anti-dumping investigation to impose additional measures on imports coming from Egypt,” Laurent Ruessman, Glass Fibre Europe’s lawyer, said.
Eight EU countries currently produce glass fibre, which is used across a range of industries including for wind turbines blades and as a component of solar panels.
“We have a market of one million tonnes for European demand. And Egypt, which has no local market, has capacity of 400,000 tonnes,” Cedric Janssen said. This figures come on top of Chinese overcapacity, which is already equivalent to twice European demand, Janssen added, “we can see that they are continuing to expand their capacities, and are becoming increasingly aggressive.”
European glass fibre producers hope an EU probe will conclude with a dumping margin of 25% on products imported from Egypt.
It’s tricky to establish differences between export prices and local prices in Egypt – necessary to assess the extent of dumping – as Egypt does not have a domestic market. “It is essentially an export production,” Laurent Ruessman said. “We have therefore calculated the production costs and added a reasonable profit, as the European Commission does for cases where there are few or no domestic sales.”
A spokesperson for the Commission declined to comment on “a potential complaint before initiation”, since the complaints process is confidential.
