The US International Trade Commission (USITC) on Jan. 20 determined under a five-year sunset review that revoking the existing antidumping and countervailing duty orders on ammonium sulfate from China (GM Feb. 10, 2017) would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury within a reasonably foreseeable time.
As a result of the Commission’s affirmative determinations, the existing orders on imports of this product from China will remain in place for the next five years.
In the 5-0 decision, Chairman David S. Johanson and Commissioners Rhonda K. Schmidtlein, Jason E. Kearns, Randolph J. Stayin, and Amy A. Karpel voted in the affirmative.
The Commission also voted 5-0 on Feb. 8, 2017, that domestic producers of ammonium sulfate were materially injured or threatened with material injury by reason of imports from China (GM Feb. 10, 2017). This affirmative determination paved the way for the US Department of Commerce (DOC) to issue antidumping and countervailing duty orders on ammonium sulfate imports from China at rates previously set by the DOC (GM Jan. 13, 2017).
Those rates included a dumping margin of 493.46% and a countervailable subsidy rate of 206.72% for all Chinese producers. The orders went into effect March 13, 2017.
PCI Nitrogen LLC, an ammonium sulfate manufacturer in Pasadena, Texas, filed the initial antidumping and countervailing duty petitions against the Chinese imports in May 2016 (GM May 27, 2016). In those petitions, PCI said Chinese imports had increased by 682% from 2013 to 2015, and Chinese producers’ share of the US market had increased significantly at the expense of US producers.
The petitions also said that Chinese imports were underselling US producer prices by significant margins, and that this underselling resulted in lower revenues and in material injury to the domestic industry. It also alleged that significant new capacity additions in China and other factors also indicated a threat of future injury to the domestic industry.
US ammonium sulfate imports from China grew from 35,888 st, or 11.2% of total imports in fertilizer year 2012-13, to 341,455 st, or 57.6% of total imports in fertilizer year 2015-16. Chinese imports rose during that time due in part to China’s rising caprolactam capacity, according to sources.
US Ammonium Sulfate Imports
| Y15-16 | Y14-15 | Y13-14 | Y12-13 | ||
| China | 341,455 | 273,839 | 147,398 | 35,888 | |
| All | 593,249 | 505,583 | 428,935 | 319,102 |
Source: US DOC in short tons
More recently, while China in 2022 cut back DAP and urea exports, it did not do so for ammonium sulfate, and actually increased exports of the product. Chinese ammonium sulfate exports went up 24%, to 8.8 million mt in 2022 from 2021’s 7.1 million mt, according to Trade Data Monitor. Major buyers in 2022 included Brazil at 2.6 million mt, Vietnam at 730,000 mt, and Turkey at 703,000 mt.
The Commission’s public report Ammonium Sulfate from China (Inv. Nos. 701-TA-562 and 731-TA-1329 (Review), USITC Publication 5402, February 2023) will be available Feb. 22, 2023, and contain the views of the Commission and information developed during the review. It may be accessed on the USITC website at: https://www.usitc.gov/commission_publications_library.