Thai Union Frozen Products has confidence that the US Department of Commerce's 15.30 per cent preliminary anti-dumping (AD) rate for the company's shrimp, which is now 5.95 per cent, contains an error.

It also expected the one-off and limited impact from the AD rate on the estimate that around 7 per cent of total sales were subject to the AD duty. This business attributed to around 6 per cent of its consolidated profit in 2007, the company said in a statement.

 In 2007, shrimp business accounted for 20 per cent of its consolidated group sales (US$1.6 billion), of which 35 per cent were exported to the US market.

 "Although this operation is a strategically important part of our shrimp business which supports our US-based subsidiaries (Chicken of the Sea Frozen Foods and Empress International), its contribution to the bottom line is limited. Also, both of our US subsidiaries have never taken it as their sole sources of supplies.

 "Instead, Empress and Chicken of the Sea Frozen Foods have been consistently sourcing from other Asian and South American shrimp suppliers to support their business. As a result, we do not foresee any interruption at our US subsidiaries regardless of the final result of the AD duty in September 2008," the company said.

 TUF share price is unchanged at Bt19.50.

- The Nation

Fri, March 6, 2008

Source: nationmultimedia.com