The European Commission has launched an investigation into imports of certain types of aluminum foil from China to the European Union to see whether current antidumping duties are being circumvented, the EC said Tuesday.

The product concerned by the possible circumvention is aluminum foil of a thickness of not less than 0.008 mm and not more than 0.018 mm, not backed, not further worked than rolled, in rolls of a width not exceeding 650 mm and of a weight exceeding 10 kg.

The product under investigation is the same, but presented for import in rolls that are not annealed and of a width exceeding 650 mm.

A request lodged on September 24 by EU producers Symetal, Eurofoil Luxembourg, Alcomet and Hydro Aluminium Rolled Products "shows that a significant change in the pattern of trade involving exports from the People's Republic of China to the Union has taken place" following the imposition of definitive antidumping duties ranging from 6.4% to 30% on the product concerned in 2009, the EC said in its official journal.

"This change appears to stem from the importation of the slightly modified product concerned which is then converted in the Union into the product concerned," the EC added.

The request contains sufficient prima facie evidence that "the remedial effects of the existing antidumping measures on the product concerned are being undermined both in terms of quantity and price," the EC said, adding that "significant" volumes of imports of the product under investigation appear to have replaced imports of the product concerned.

The EC aims to conclude its investigation within nine months of Tuesday's publication of the notice in the official journal.