US sets new penalties on China wood

The US Commerce Department set preliminary anti-dumping duties on Tuesday ranging up to 63.96 percent on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of plywood from China, which it said was being sold at unfairly low prices.

The move angered a group of importers who said the duties would increase the cost of kitchen and bath cabinetry and other products such as furniture, flooring and boats made in the US with Chinese plywood.

The US imported about $748 million worth of hardwood and decorative plywood from China in 2012.

The Commerce Department announced it set a preliminary duty of 22.14 percent on plywood made or exported by 101 Chinese companies and a preliminary rate of 63.96 percent on all other Chinese producers and exporters except for two companies, Linyi San Fortune Wood Co Ltd and Jiangyang Group.

Those two firms were undercutting US prices by less than 2 percent, which was not enough to warrant duties, it said.

The Coalition for Fair Trade of Hardwood Plywood, which represents producers in North Carolina, New York and Oregon, had accused Chinese competitors of selling the wood in the US with a dumping margin of 298.36 percent and 321.68 percent and additional subsidies.

US importers and manufacturers opposed to the duties said the Chinese plywood fills a niche in the US market that domestic producers are unable to supply.

The US department has already announced separate preliminary countervailing duties of up to 27 percent on the plywood to offset alleged Chinese government subsidies.

A final decision on both types of duties is expected in July.