On 17 April 2025, the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC) informed of the initiation of a Sunset Review of the anti-dumping duties on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) classifiable under tariff subheading 3907.6 originating in or imported from the People’s Republic of China, on which comment is due by 24 May 2025.
In accordance with South Africa’s Anti-Dumping Regulations (ADR), any definitive anti-dumping duty shall be terminated on a date not later than five years from its imposition unless the authorities determine, in a review initiated before that date on their own initiative or upon a duly substantiated request made by or on behalf of the domestic industry within a reasonable period of time prior to the date, such anti-dumping duty shall remain in force until the sunset review has been finalised, that the expiry of the duty would likely to lead to continuation of dumping and material injury.
On 21 June 2024, ITAC notified interested parties that unless a substantiated request by or on behalf of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) industry was made before 22 July 2024, indicating that the expiry of the anti-dumping duties on PET originating in or imported from China would likely lead to the continuation of dumping and injury, the anti-dumping duties on PET originating in or imported from China would expire on 18 May 2025.
On 08 April 2025, ITAC accepted a Sunset Review application from Safripol alleging that the expiry of the anti-dumping duty on PET from China would likely lead to the continuation of dumping and material injury as properly documented.
The application was lodged by Safripol, a division of Kap Diversified Industrial (formerly known as Hosaf, a division of Kap Diversified Industrial), the sole producer of PET in SACU. Extrupet (Pty) Ltd, one of the oldest and largest plastic recycling companies in SACU, has expressed its support for the application. Safripol submitted sufficient evidence and established a prima facie case to enable the ITAC to arrive at a reasonable conclusion that a sunset review investigation of the anti-dumping duties on PET originating in or imported from China.
The allegation of continuation of dumping is based on the comparison between the normal value and the export price.
The normal value was determined based on the domestic selling prices derived from ‘Wood Mackenzie’ (a leading provider of commercial intelligence in upstream and refining of chemicals, polymers, and fibres) for the period 01 September 2023 to 31 August 2024.
The export price was determined based on the official import statistics obtained from the South African Revenue Service.
On this basis, ITAC found that there was prima facie proof of the likelihood of continuation of dumping if the anti-dumping duties were removed. On this basis, the dumping margin was determined to be 44.97%.
Safripol alleged and submitted prima facie evidence to indicate that, should the duties expire, it would experience an increase in alleged dumped imports, price suppression, a decline in profit, a decline in sales volumes and values, a decline in output, loss of market share, the decline in return on investment, decline in productivity, decline in capacity utilisation, and negative growth.
On this basis, ITAC found that there was prima facie proof of the likelihood of a continuation of material injury if anti-dumping duties were removed.
The period of investigation for dumping is from 01 September 2023 to 31 August 2024. The period of investigation for material injury involves the evaluation of data for the period of 01 September 2021 to 31 August 2024 and estimates in the event the duties are removed.