U.S. To Investigate Chinese Wood Floor Dumping

Washington, DC, Nov. 13, 2010 -- The U.S. Commerce Department said it would investigate whether Chinese companies are selling hundreds of millions of dollars of engineered wood flooring in the U.S. at unfairly low prices, according to a story in Business Spectator.

The department said it accepted a petition from an industry group that includes Anderson Hardwood Floors, Award Hardwood Floors and Shaw Industries Group.

The case involves easy-to-assemble wood floor planks like those sold at Home Depot and Lowe's.

U.S. manufacturers want anti-dumping duties ranging from about 195 per cent to 281 per cent on engineered flooring from China.

They also want additional duties to offset Chinese government subsidies, including what they said was a government policy of keeping the Chinese yuan currency undervalued by as much as 25-50%.

Imports of multilayered wood flooring from China fell to $119.7 million in 2009 from $148 million in 2008.

Manufacturers said the recession was the cause of the decline, and argued China was poised to grab a bigger share of the market as the US economy recovered.

The U.S. International Trade Commission, which has the final say on whether any duties are imposed, will examine the issue and vote in December on whether there is enough evidence of injury to U.S. companies for the case to proceed.

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