Two U.S. makers of activated carbon filed petitions with the government Jan. 26 accusing China of dumping the product, whose uses include cleaning wastewater, on the US market. Calgon Carbon Corp. and Norit Americas Inc. said Chinese imports of activated carbon had surged by more than a third in two years, and were priced at up to seven times less than the market value.
"The continued low-priced, high-volume assault on the U.S. market by Chinese activated carbon is destroying the profitability of the domestic industry, despite its best efforts to reduce costs and maintain pricing and profits," the companies' lead counsel, David Hartquist, said in the petition.
The firms urged the Commerce Department to uphold their petition and slap anti-dumping tariffs on the Chinese imports.
Activated carbon's industrial uses include the treating of water, taking impurities out of foods and drinks, and removing mercury and dioxins from flue-gas emissions
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2006
