Arkema Files R-32 Antidumping Petition
Company seeks relief from unfairly traded refrigerant imports
On January 23, 2020, Arkema Inc. filed a petition seeking relief under U.S. antidumping duty laws from unfairly traded imports of R-32 from China. The petition alleges that imports of R-32 from China are sold at less than fair value, causing material injury to the U.S. R-32 industry, and threatening to continue doing so if left unchecked.
In the United States, R-32 is used as a component to produce various HFC blends, which are refrigerants used in a variety of applications, in particular R-410A, a key product in most air conditioning applications. Arkema produces R-32 at its Calvert City, Kentucky, plant.
Beginning in 2017, foreign-backed blending operations have entered the U.S. to bypass the existing antidumping duty order on HFC blends from China, which was imposed on August 19, 2016. Because the HFC blends antidumping duty order does not cover components like R-32, blenders can purchase cheap Chinese R-32 to make HFC blends in the U.S. market.
Thus, over the last few years, there has been a significant increase in unfairly traded R-32 imports from China into the United States sold at less than fair value. Arkema wants this loophole in the HFC blends antidumping duty order to be closed in order to protect the U.S. R-32 industry.
As a global refrigerant producer, and the lone R-32 producer in the United States, Arkema supports free and fair competition. Arkema believes that, once the facts underlying the petition are reviewed by the relevant agencies, Chinese R-32 imports will be deemed by those agencies to compete unfairly in the U.S. market.
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