Paper Outlook — Declaring War on Dumping

Web Catching On

“It started on the West Coast, and it’s moved across the country,” another paper buyer noted of the prevalence of imports. “What’s really getting attention is that China is starting to make web grades available. From a buyer’s perspective, it’s a good thing because prices are likely to stabilize.”

If the manufacturers of coated freesheet papers are publicly supporting the dumping claims, they’re not doing so through this magazine. A NewPage representative did not return requests seeking comment. Representatives for Stora Enso and Weyerhaeuser also opted not to comment, the latter largely due to the sale of its fine papers business to Domtar. Sappi North America did comment on the state of Asian sourcing, but would not speak specifically to NewPage’s complaint.

“In years past, Sappi—along with other coated manufacturers in the U.S.—have voiced concern over the Korean government’s willingness to subsidize its paper industry,” notes Brooke Carey of Sappi Fine Paper North America’s corporate communications department. “However, Sappi has not taken a position with respect to the petition filed by NewPage.”

By contrast, Tom Vendetti, spokesman for international paper sourcing firm China Paper Holdings of Beijing, feels the DOC’s antidumping and antisubsidy investigation into China’s exports of coated paper is “completely unfounded and detrimental to both the U.S. and global economies.”

Vendetti likened the Chinese government’s offering of subsidies to its domestic coated paper companies to the U.S. government’s practices of offering tax breaks and other incentives to create jobs and stimulate the economy.

“Any country should have the right…to introduce new products to new markets where there proves to be high demand,” Vendetti wrote in an e-mail. “For a country that so greatly values free enterprise and a competitive marketplace, it is impossible to understand why the United States would not support more industries in doing what the global textiles and technology industries have been doing for years—introducing the American economy to alternative products and competitive prices.”