A Federal Government agency has signalled it will uphold a complaint by Kimberly-Clark Australia (KCA) regarding unfair competition.

The company alleged its premium Kleenex toilet paper made at its Millicent Mill was facing unfair competition from some imported products.

A similar complaint was lodged by SCA Hygiene Australia which manufactures Sorbent toilet paper which is a premium grade competitor to Kleenex.

Both companies complained to the Australian Customs Service (ACS) about Chinese and Indonesian toilet paper and alleged the imports were subsidised, which is contrary to Australian law.

A 72-page preliminary report by the ACS has recently been issued.

Some commercial information has been withheld from public release.

KCA Millicent Mill manager Scott Whicker said the ACS was aiming to finalise its report to the Minister by Tuesday.

KCA and SCA Hygiene Australia have alleged the subsidies caused material injury to the Australian industry.

They claim Woolworths supermarkets have been selling the imported toiler paper under its “Select” in-house range (the Select range is no longer stocked by the Millicent Woolworths supermarket).

According to the two companies, they have suffered from loss of market share, price depression, price suppression, reduced profit and profitability, reduced return on investment and reduced attractiveness to reinvest.

They also allege that the situation has led to underutilisation of production assets, increased inventory levels of like-goods produced by the Australian industry and reduced domestic revenues for premium and mid-range product lines.