Glyphosate producer files antidumping petition

Ankeny, Iowa-Albaugh Inc., a privately-held manufacturer of off-patent crop protection products headquartered in Ankeny, Iowa, filed an antidumping petition on March 31 with the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) against imports from China of the herbicide glyphosate. Albaugh said it was filing its petition in response to the trade practices of Chinese glyphosate manufacturers “who have dramatically and irrationally increased their glyphosate production capacity over the course of the last three years, which has destabilized glyphosate markets in the U.S. and around the world.” Albaugh, which has a $400 million glyphosate manufacturing facility in St. Joseph, Mo., said the trade practices of Chinese manufacturers has led to unprecedented volatility in the pricing of glyphosate, affecting both U.S. manufacturers and farmers. China increased prices of glyphosate by more than 400 percent in response to skyrocketing demand in 2007, Albaugh charged, and by 2009 had developed glyphosate production capacity that is 150 percent of total global demand for the product. “In response to this massive overproduction, global glyphosate prices collapsed beginning in 2008 and continuing throughout 2009,”Albaugh said. “Chinese producers continued to flood the U.S. market with inventory and drove prices to levels well below their own cost of production, simply to dump excess inventory. Prices have fallen by as much as 75 percent since mid-2008 and are now well below cost of production cost for even the most efficient producers.” Albaugh said that the collapse of the glyphosate market has forced it to cut its production at St. Joseph and make “substantial layoffs of its workforce” in mid-2009 for the first time in the company’s history. “It is not in the interest of U.S. farmers to allow the Chinese to corner the glyphosate market,” said Dennis Albaugh, chairman and owner of Albaugh. “Similar conditions have led to the relocation of the fertilizer industry largely offshore. American agriculture cannot afford the loss of U.S.-based production of another key agricultural input.” The ITC has begun a preliminary investigation into Albaugh’s complaint. Albaugh said the petition process is expected to take about a year to complete.