This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union .

Article 1 shall apply for a period of six months.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, 11 July 2024.

For the Commission

The President

Ursula VON DER LEYEN

( 1 ) OJ L 176, 30.6.2016, p. 21 , ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/1036/oj .

( 2 ) Notice of initiation of an anti-dumping proceeding concerning imports of certain polyvinyl chloride (‘PVC’) originating in Egypt and the United States of America ( OJ C, C/2023/1033, 15.11.2023, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2023/1033/oj ).

( 3 ) The statement in the complaint reads: ‘A profit margin of 15 % is considered a normal profitability margin for the chemical industry and on average is the target% of EBITDA for the Complainant companies. This figure represents the level of EBITDA needed to invest and to maintain production capacity’. In the two following paragraphs in the complaint it is explicitly clear that the complainants used the profit margin in their analysis: ‘The PVC industry is a capital intensive industry which needs to achieve 15 % profit margins to be sustainable. This includes re-investing in existing plans to ensure future operations and to remain competitive against imports from countries that have lower energy costs and less stringent decarbonization requirements’ and ‘previously, the industry has not made 15 % profit margin consistently and this has caused a lot of problems leading to the closure of several PVC units and even whole sites’.

( 4 ) https://tron.trade.ec.europa.eu/investigations/case-view?caseId=2695 .

( 5 ) The Commission was able to access and verify production and financial data of the sampled producer (Vynova Wilhelmshaven GmbH) in the premises of its related company Vynova Belgium NV (entrepreneur in the tolling contract).

( 6 ) In calculating the representativity, the Commission has compared the EU sales of the product concerned reported by the cooperating US exporting producers with the Eurostat import statistics, duly adjusted by excluding E-PVC.

( 7 ) The chlor-alkali process is an industrial process for the electrolysis of sodium chloride (NaCl) solutions. It refers to the technology used to produce chlorine and sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), both of which are basic commodity chemicals required by industry.

( 8 ) The arguments presented by the complainants included five reasons: (i) PVC and caustic soda serve different and distinct market; (ii) not all PVC producers are integrated and produce caustic soda; (iii) PVC and caustic soda are not produced in the same production process; (iv) chlorine and caustic soda are co-products of the electrolysis of salt; and (v) it would be impossible to ascertain which one of the two industries produce the primary product and which industry produces the secondary ‘by product’.

( 9 ) Case M.6905 – INEOS/Solvay/JV which is available at the link ( https://ec.europa.eu/competition/mergers/cases/decisions/m6905_8118_2.pdf ).

( 10 ) The K-value is an indicator of the molecular weight and degree of polymerisation and the Commission chose four different PCNs based on K-Value, expanding the proposed three PCN structure proposed in the complaint. Only one sampled Union producer produced a minor proportion of speciality S-PVC using the same lines that produced general purpose S-PVC. This producer used the term speciality S-PVC when the product had been customised to the specific needs of the user (e.g. by including additives, colouring it …).

( 11 ) The report for Case M.6905 states that ‘In fact, extender S-PVC can be produced on production lines used for the production of speciality S-PVC or commodity S-PVC, as long as there is an appropriate drying unit. That is because extender S-PVC particles are far smaller than commodity SPVC particles and, therefore, more sophisticated drying equipment is required. Speciality S-PVC can also be produced on production lines normally used for commodity S-PVC or extender S-PVC production, as long as there are co-monomer injection lines and appropriate monomer recovery units in place’.

ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2024/1896/oj

ISSN 1977-0677 (electronic edition)

COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) 2024/1896 of 11 July 2024 imposing a provisional anti-dumping duty on imports of certain polyvinyl chloride (‘PVC’) originating in Egypt and the United States of America