The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) has proposed that a new anti-dumping measure of up to 83.5% be applied to imports of excavators from China to the UK.

The TRA is a UK government body, which defends the UK against unfair international trade practices. It investigates whether new trade remedies are needed to prevent injury to UK industries caused by unfair trading practices.

The proposed measure would range from 33.03% for sampled producers that took part in the investigation, to 83.5% for all other overseas exporters that did not participate.

Such a measure could benefit UK excavator producers by up to £3.4m (€4.1m) per year, the TRA has found.

“Excavator production is an important component of the UK’s Advanced Manufacturing sector. Our provisional finding is that UK producers are being undercut significantly by dumped imports from China,” added the TRA.

The TRA opened its investigation in response to an application from JCB, the well-known UK manufacturer. The periods of investigation for both the anti-dumping and countervailing case were 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023, however, the TRA chose to examine the period from 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2023 as the injury period.

The TRA estimated that during the period of investigation, UK excavator producers employed around 900 workers and had a turnover of around £500m (approx €603m).

Around 180,000t of excavators were sold in the UK during the period of investigation, with the UK industry supplying between 10-25% of this volume.

The UK industry’s market share decreased by 11% over the injury period.

The TRA found that Chinese exporters were able to use reduced production costs to price their exports below UK competitors, who did not benefit from an artificially low-cost base. It determined that UK prices were undercut by a rate of 23.39%.

The TRA has published its initial findings, proposing that an anti-dumping measure be imposed on imports of excavators from China weighing 11t or more, but less than 80t.

Chinese excavators subsidised

In addition to the anti-dumping recommendation, the TRA has also published its initial findings in its countervailing investigation into excavators imported to the UK from China.

Countervailing duties are designed to counteract government subsidies that cause material injury to domestic industries. During its investigation, the TRA found Chinese excavators have been subsidised and that their importation to the UK has caused injury to the UK’s excavator industry.

As a result, the TRA has made an initial recommendation to impose a countervailing duty on imported Chinese excavators weighing 11t or more, but less than 80t.

The duty would range from 0% to 2.93% and would be in addition to the anti-dumping duty already proposed.

JCB chief executive Graeme Macdonald welcomed TRA’s outcome: “The TRA finding that Chinese exporters of excavators are using unfair practices to price their exports below their UK competitors comes as no surprise to us.

The evidence has been out there in our home market for quite some time.

As a result, the TRA’s proposal for a new anti-dumping measure in response to this anti-competitive behaviour is an important first step in levelling the playing field in the UK, which has been distorted for far too long by Chinese exporters.”