Citric Acid Webinar Review
CCM International Ltd. hosted an on-line webinar on Feb. 24, 2011, when Chinese citric acid industry faces intense trade frictions from abroad. In recent three years, Chinese citric acid enterprises have experienced EU anti-dumping investigation, US double-reverse investigation. The latest case was Brazil Citric Acid Industry Association applied for an anti-dumping investigation into Chinese citric acid in Dec. 2010.
In this webinar, CCM reviewed the anti-dumping investigations from the EU and the US, including the price agreement signed between the EU and six large Chinese citric acid enterprises. By using plenty of figures and tables, the effect of these anti-dumping issues on China's citric acid industry has been showed before the participants. It gave the result that anti-dumping issues from abroad did not bring much negative impact on the export volume of Chinese citric acid. Actually, the total export volume has maintained uptrend since 2006 except 2008, though the export volume to EU and the US decreased. During the webinar, an in-depth analysis and comparison was made based on the export data to EU and the US. Statistics also showed that four countries in the EU have witnessed significant increase in citric acid import from China in 2010.
The webinar also summarized three possible methods used by China citric acid industry to deal with oversea anti-dumping issues in recent years: entrepot trade, actively responding to the anti-dumping investigation and exploring new market. It is highly possible that entrepot trade does exist, from the following facts: four countries' unusual citric acid import volume growth from China in the past three years, the detailed entrepot operation from a freight company as well as profit calculations for normal exportation and entrepot trade. However, according to CCM's investigation on citric acid exporters, most Chinese citric acid manufacturers express that they would not adopt this method because it is improper and illegal.
Some relevant figures and company dynamics were shown during introduction to the other two ways.
In the end, a forecast on 2011 China citric acid export performance was made that if there are no other anti-dumping or anti-subsidy issues in some major export destinations. The total export volume of China's citric acid may increase by 8%~15% in 2011. As to the EU and the US, it made two different predictions.
The export to EU may witness increase, while to the US, it may decrease compared to that in 2010.