The U.S. side throws a stone to the Chinese textile industry?

On June 28, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued an announcement to make an anti-dumping final ruling on woven blankets originating in China. The anti-dumping rate is as high as 77.75%-174.85%.

Vickers Home Textiles and Ningbo Jifa, which were listed as separate tax rate application companies, said that the US anti-dumping ruling was the largest woven blanket manufacturer in China, Hong Guo Electronics Shenzhen.

The textile industry is concerned that the U.S. side is “throwing stones and asking for directions” and using electric blankets, a relatively unpopular category of goods, to test the ability and response speed of domestic enterprises to respond to complaints, and may spread to other types of textiles.

High anti-dumping determination

The US International Trade Commission will make a final ruling on anti-dumping industry damages on August 9th. If it is a positive ruling, the US Department of Commerce will issue anti-dumping orders on the products involved.

"This is just a matter of procedural implementation, and an affirmative ruling will be made in August," said Wang Qianjin, editor-in-chief of First Textile Net.

This also means that the US anti-dumping investigation on China's electric blankets starting from July last year will have final results, and domestic companies have not responded with good results.

Last July, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued an announcement to initiate anti-dumping investigations on woven blankets originating in China on the application of US company Jarden Consumer Solutions. The products under investigation include Chinese finished products, semi-finished products and unassembled electric blankets of various sizes and materials. In January of this year, the US Department of Commerce made an initial anti-dumping decision on the case and ruled that the dumping margin of the products involved in the case in China was 90.32% to 174.85%.

Now that the final ruling has taken place, the U.S. Department of Commerce has decided to reduce the dumping margin. Except Wang Guo Electronics (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., Ningbo Veken United Trade Group Co., Ltd., and Ningbo Polar Power Generator Co., Ltd., three separate tax rate application companies were found to have a dumping margin of 77.75%, and the remaining Chinese manufacturers' dumping margin was still 174.85%.

According to the head of Veken Textiles, Vickers and Maxfa are suppliers of Jarden Consumer Solutions, and Hongguo Electronics is a rival of Jarden in the US market. "In fact, this anti-dumping is mainly aimed at Hongguo Electronics. They are the largest domestic manufacturers of woven electric blankets."

Hongguo Electronics (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. refused to speak. This is a Taiwan-funded company that mainly manufactures electric blankets and electric heating pad products. Its products are mainly sold in Europe and the United States, with an annual output of about 2 million electric blankets and electric heating pads.

Industry fears "chain reaction"

Wang Qiang said that electric blankets are only a small category of textiles exported. The total value of China's textile exports is as high as more than 160 billion U.S. dollars, while the U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that the amount of Chinese-made woven blanket-related goods sold to the United States in 2009 was only USD 55.91 million.

However, he is concerned that this case may trigger a series of incidents of textile disputes between China and the United States, triggering anti-dumping investigations on other major textile and clothing products, and even further extending to other export markets under the background of a poor world economy.

The United States is the largest market for domestic electric blanket exports. From January to December of 2009, China exported braided electric blankets, and the United States, Japan, and the European Union-27 were the largest exporters, accounting for 39%, 31%, and 15% of the total domestic exports. Between 2007 and 2009, the number of electric blankets imported from China by the United States increased by 70%. The top three export destinations for domestic electric blankets are Shenzhen in Guangdong, Yuyao in Zhejiang and Ningbo in Zhejiang, accounting for 57%, 21% and 15%, respectively.

Hong Guo Electronics Shenzhen, the company most affected, has already transferred most of its production capacity to the Philippines to avoid high anti-dumping duties.