Seoul, May 15 (Yonhap) - South Korea said Thursday it will slap anti-dumping duties on Chinese benzoyl peroxide for three years to protect the local industry from excessively cheap Chinese chemicals.

The measure is a follow-up on a recommendation by the Korea Trade Commission, which carried out investigations into alleged unfair cutting of the prices of the products by Chinese chemical companies.

With the exception of one company, which agreed to raise prices voluntarily, a uniform anti-dumping duty of 9.72 per cent will be levied on all the imported material from Friday, according to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance. The duties will be imposed until May 15, 2011, it added.

"We expect that the anti-dumping measure will help prevent the inflow of excessively cheap benzoyl peroxide from China and improve business conditions for many local manufacturers," the ministry said in a press release.

Benzoyl peroxide is used as a polymerization catalyst for various synthetic resins, including polyesters and monomers such as silicone, acrylics, vinyl and styrene. It can also be used as the initiator of the polymerization.

According to industry data, the local market for the material stood at 2.9 billion won (US$2.76 million) as of 2006, with imports accounting for about a third of local demand.

Originally published by Yonhap news agency, Seoul, in English 0304 15 May 08.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

Posted on: Thursday, 15 May 2008, 06:00 CDT

Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap

[Yonhap headline: "Seoul To Slap Anti-dumping Duties on Chinese Benzoyl Peroxide"]

May 15, 2008

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