Mainland China probes nylon yarn dumping by Taiwanese makers

Taipei, Nov. 5, 2003 (CENS)--Mainland China's Ministry of Commerce recently decided to conduct an investigation on Taiwan's alleged dumping of nylon filament and textured nylon yarn in the mainland market.

To face the investigation, Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF) and Taiwan Man-made Fiber Industries Association (TMFIA) yesterday invited some 80 manufacturers and traders of nylon yarn and related products to work out countermeasures against the likely charges by the mainland authority. They will not rule out the possibility of recruiting lawyers to handle the case.

Actually, early last year a saying went that Beijing would probe Taiwan's inappropriate exports of nylon filament and textured nylon yarn to the mainland market. Although the saying was widely spread in the island's textile sector, the Beijing government has not taken action until recently, to the great surprise of Taiwan's manufacturers.

According to official statistics, Taiwan turns out 400,000 tons of nylon filament yarn per year, and about 60% of the textured nylon yarn and relevant products are exported to the mainland. With such a large ratio, Taiwanese manufacturers have become the most-complained targets by their mainland counterparts and the Beijing authorities finally decided to look into the matter and will likely file a dumping charge against Taiwan.

TMFIA expressed doubts about the accuracy of the statistics compiled by both sides of the Taiwan Strait. A ranking TMFIA official indicated that it has found in the past dumping cases that some manufacturers or traders in Southeast Asian countries exported their products to the mainland under the tag of "made-in-Taiwan." These faked products, often mixed with those exported from Taiwan, misled the Beijing authorities into wrong judgement, unfair to Taiwan's manufacturers.

On the other hand, the nylon yarn industry in the mainland is still far behind the rapidly growing polyester yarn industry, and needs more efforts on further development because of the high manufacturing skill and technology involved. Accordingly, the mainland market, short of nylon filament and textured nylon yarn, heavily relies on imports, particularly from Taiwan.

And the Beijing government's anti-dumping action against the nylon filament makers in Taiwan will be very likely to cause price hike on nylon filament yarn. And this is believed to be detrimental to the mainland's thriving down-stream cloth weaving industry.