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The Bureau of Customs is imposing a provisional dumping duty on imports of gypsum board from Thailand following allegations such shipments come in at dumped prices
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Under Customs Memorandum Circular No. 201-2024, the provisional duty is in the form of a cash bond to be imposed for four months
The Bureau of Customs (BOC) is imposing a provisional dumping duty on imports of gypsum board from Thailand following allegations such shipments come in at dumped prices, hurting the domestic industry.
Under Customs Memorandum Circular (CMC) No. 201-2024, Customs commissioner Bienvenido Rubio said the duty is in the form of a cash bond that will be imposed for four months starting from the date of issuance of the circular (December 9).
CMC 201-2024 circularizes Department of Trade and Industry’s DAO 24-10. Dated November 5, DAO 24-10 noted that Knauf Gypsum Philippines, Inc. — the only manufacturer of gypsum board in the country — filed a petition for anti-dumping duty on imported gypsum board for Thailand on November 24, 2023, alleging such shipments are being dumped in the country and is causing material injury to the domestic gypsum board industry.
On November 29, DTI found merit to initiate a preliminary anti-dumping investigation. The period of investigation (POI) for dumping was from January 2022 to May 2023 while the POI for injury was from 2019 to 2022 and updated to September 2023.
The DTI, acting under Republic Act (RA) 8752 or the Anti-Dumping Act of 1999, and on the basis of available information, concluded in its preliminary investigation that imported gypsum board with thickness of 9mm and 12mm from Thailand are being dumped, causing material injury to the domestic gypsum industry. It also concluded that imposition of a safeguard measure is necessary to prevent further material injury to the domestic industry.
Section 2 of RA 8752 provides that it is “the policy of the State to protect domestic enterprises against unfair foreign competition and trade practices.”
The product covered by the petition falls under AHTN (ASEAN Harmonized Tariff Nomenclature) Codes 6809.11.00 and 6809.19.90 described as gypsum board, which consists of a core of hardened extruded gypsum enclosed in a reinforcing layer of paper linerboard. It is used for internal walls and ceilings.
According to DTI’s report on the preliminary investigation, the domestic industry suffered material injury in terms of declining market share, domestic sales, and capacity utilization rate in the first three quarters of 2023 as compared with the same period in 2022.
Comparison between the export price and normal value of gypsum board from Thailand for January to May 2023 indicated a dumping margin of 5.45% to 34.72% of export price for 9mm, and 4.65% to 33.81% for export price for 12mm.
Dumped imports from Thailand against the total Philippine imports were at 81% in 2021, 55% in 2022, and 68% in January-May 2023. The volume of alleged dumped gypsum board product satisfies the de minimis volume requirement of 3%.
Comparing the first three quarters of 2022 and 2023, domestic sales volume declined by 7% while sales value slightly increased by 0.28%. In 2023, 60% of the demand was supplied by the domestic industry while 30% was captured by dumped imports from Thailand.
Share of imports from Thailand increased to 62% in 2020 and 2021. It declined to 49% in 2021 and dropped to 24% in 2022. However, comparing the first three quarters of 2023 to the same period in 2022, Thailand’s share of imports increased to 30% from 25%.
While the Knauf Group’s acquisition of building materials manufacturer USG Boral Building Products Pty Ltd. in 2021 resulted in improvement in revenue and operations, the DTI report said evidence showed that the domestic industry suffered material injury before the acquisition. Moreover, it said the gypsum local industry continued to suffer material injury from dumped imports even after the operations improvements resulting from the acquisition.
