SHANGHAI, Dec. 23 (SMM) -- The European Commission (EC) said on December 20th that it had launched an anti-dumping investigation into imports of certain grades of aluminum foil in rolls from China into the European Union. A complaint was lodged on November 9 by the European metals industry group Eurometaux, the EC said. The investigation period was from October 1st, 2010 to September 30th, 2011. This is not the first anti-dumping investigation case faced by China in 2011.

On February 14th, 2011, India’s Security Bureau had launched a safeguard investigation into Chinese aluminum plate and foil, but there is no confirmed conclusion yet. China’s monthly exports of aluminum foil used for composite packaging materials to India are between 5,000-8,000 mt, accounting for 10% of total monthly exports of aluminum foil. China’s exports of aluminum foil to the EU were 70,095 mt from January to October 2011, accounting for 13.5% of total exports of aluminum foil. The EU had launched an anti-dumping investigation on Chinese aluminum wheel in 2009, and the final result was that China lost shares in Europe, the world’s second-largest aluminum wheel export market.

In 2009, the EU has launched over the export of China's aluminum wheel anti-dumping investigation, the end result is that our country lost in Europe's second-largest export market for aluminum wheels.

KSSMurthy, Secretary-General of the Aluminum Association of India (AAI), said recently that the government should firmly ban the import of aluminum products, especially non-value added products from China, since lower-priced products from China have damaged the development of India’s aluminum industry. Similarly, the EU initiating the anti-dumping investigation on Chinese aluminum foil is also based on the same reason.

SMM believes domestic aluminum foil producers should actively initiate proceedings for the legitimate business interests. In the future, China should increase the added value of aluminum products and have China's market economy status to be recognized as soon as possible, which is an effective way to avoid anti-dumping investigations on aluminum products.