Global Plywood Industry Affected by U.S.-China Trade War & Antidumping

The global plywood industry has been heavily affected by the U.S.-China trade war and the recession of Chinese economy, according to the Decorative Hardwoods Association.

China consume 64% of world’s total production of plywood at 101 million cubic meters, six times higher than the U.S., which is the world’s second-largest consumer of plywood at 16 million cubic meters.

Chinese Hardwood Plywood Already Anti-Dumped by United States in 2017

On 13th November 2017, US Department of Commerce Office declared its final determinations in the antidumping duty investigation on imported Chinese hardwood plywood. Most plywood manufacturers in China got a dumping margin of 22.98%. There are 61 Chinese companies got a dumping margin of 194.90%.

These duties makes many Chinese suppliers almost gave up the US market and look for new buyers in Middle East, Europe, South East Asia and so on.

According to recent news, American plywood manufacturers are claiming that Brazillian competitors supplying inferior products to its market at too low prices.

Trade Tensions from Plywood

In 2017 The US Commerce Department said Chinese was providing subsidies of up to 195 per cent of product value and would impose tariffs at same rates. In response, China’s Ministry of Commerce said the US method of calculating Chinese cost discriminated against China and violated WTO rules. China said it felt deep “dissatisfaction” over the case.

While the value of Chinese exports of plywood was merely US$1.1 billion in 2016, the dispute touched on a thorny issue in the countries’ relations: China asked the US to treat it as a market economy but the US refused to do so.