The European Union renewed tariffs on a chemical from China used in bricks, giving a German unit of Belgium’s Solvay SA (SOLB) five more years of trade protection.

The EU re-imposed the duties as high as 56.40 euros ($80.71) a metric ton on barium carbonate, also used in the tiles, ceramics and ferrite industries. The EU introduced the levies in July 2005 to punish Chinese exporters such as Guizhou Red Star Developing Co. for selling barium carbonate in Europe below cost, a practice known as dumping.
“There is no reason to believe the Chinese exporting producers will not continue to dump and undercut Union industry prices in the future,” the 27-nation EU said in a decision published today in the Official Journal and due to take effect tomorrow. “If measures were repealed, there would be a likelihood of a significant increase in dumped imports.”

China’s share of the EU market for barium carbonate expanded to 63.6 percent in the 12 months through June 2010 from 61.9 percent in 2007, according to the decision in Brussels by the bloc’s governments. EU consumption of barium carbonate fell 38 percent to 76,560 tons in that period, according to the bloc.

Solvay & CPC Barium Strontium GmbH, the EU’s sole producer of barium carbonate, made a request in April 2010 for longer trade protection. The Hanover-based company said that letting the trade protection lapse would probably result in a continuation of dumping by Chinese exporters and of injury to the EU industry, according to the bloc.
That led the European Commission, the EU’s trade authority, to open a probe in July 2010 into whether the levies should be prolonged. The five-year renewal is the outcome of that inquiry, during which the duties stayed in place.

Aug 19, 2011 3:14 PM GMT+0700
By Jonathan Stearns
Source: bloomberg.com