The European Commission (E.C.) last month opened an investigation into the antidumping measures currently in force on UAN imports into the European Union (E.U.) from Russia, the U.S., and Trinidad and Tobago.
The decision follows a complaint lodged with the Commission’s Directorate General for Trade in April by the European farmers’ organizations Copa-Cogeca, supported by the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA).
Copa and Cogeca and IFA have welcomed “this first step” by the E.C., and are asking the Commission “to act swiftly.”
The investigation will assess the impact of these antidumping duties on E.U. farmers and whether fertilizer producers in the bloc would suffer “a threat of injury” should the current antidumping measures on UAN be suspended.
According to a Copa-Cogeca statement, since the beginning of 2021, nitrogen fertilizer prices have tripled and now represent 55 percent of the input costs of crop farmers in Europe. The farmers’ organizations noted that volumes offered in the off-season have been lower than usual, and already distributors are not sure they will be able to meet all farmers’ demands by the spring-use period in many Member States.
These conditions “greatly compromise” the production capacities of crop farmers, the farmers’ organizations said.
Copa and Cogeca believe the price of fertilizers, especially UAN, as well as being connected to rising global fertilizer demand and prices of gas and sea freight, is also down to insufficient competition in the E.U. domestic market.
” … customs barriers on nitrogen and antidumping taxes on UAN in place at E.U. level, have become a major obstacle for farmers and expose them to excessive prices and the real risk of supply shortages,” the farmers’ organizations said.
“With UAN prices of over €750/mt [approximately $849/mt at current exchange rates], there is a clear need for rapid action as the situation remains tense in several Member States,” said Copa Vice-President Tim Cullinan, who is also President of IFA. “We therefore hope that the investigation launched by the European Commission can be concluded within a timeframe that considers the critical situation on farms.”
Cullinan estimates that the annual cost to E.U. farmers from the UAN antidumping measures alone ranges from €545 million to €1.1 billion (approximately $617 million to $1.2 billion at current exchange rates).
Meanwhile, European fertilizer industries, who experience both high production costs and high selling prices, continue to make “excessive margins,” Copa and Cogeca said.
UAN imports originating in the U.S. and imports of UAN from Russia and Trinidad and Tobago into E.U. Member Countries have been subject to definitive antidumping duties since October 2019, and to provisional AD measures since April 2019 (GM Oct. 11, 2019; April 12, 2019). As the measures currently stand, they will remain in place for a period of five years.
The duty rates range from €22.24/mt up to €42.47/mt.
Definitive Duties
| Country | Company | Definitive Duty Rate (%)1 | Definitive Fixed Duty Rate €/mt |
| Russia | PJSC Acron and all other Russian companies except JSC Azot and JSC Nevinnomyssky Azot | 31.9 | 42.47 |
| Russia | JSC Azot and JSC Nevinnomyssky Azot (both part of EuroChem Group AG) | 20.0 | 27.77 |
| U.S. | CF Industries Holdings, Inc. | 23.9 | 29.48 |
| U.S. | All other U.S. companies | 23.9 | 29.48 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | Methanol Holdings (Trinidad) Ltd. | 16.2 | 22.24 |
| Trinidad and Tobago | All other Trinidad and Tobago companies | 16.2 | 22.24 |
1Expressed as a percentage of the CIF Union frontier price, duty unpaid