The EU has imposed definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of 1,4-butanediol (BDO) from China, Saudi Arabia and the United States, with rates ranging from 52.4% to 142.5%.
The duties range from 105.6% to 113.7% for China, are set at 52.4% for Saudi Arabia, and range from 135.7% to 142.5% for the United States, the European Commission announced on Wednesday.
Anti-dumping duties are import taxes applied when goods are found to be sold into a market at unfairly low prices, known as “dumping”, under EU trade rules.
The measures follow an investigation that found imports of BDO from the three countries were entering the EU at dumped prices and causing injury to EU producers.
EU BDO production is located in Germany, the Netherlands and Italy.
What BDO is used for
BDO is an intermediate chemical used to produce a range of other chemicals and materials, including polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), polyurethane (PU) and tetrahydrofuran (THF), the update said.
Those downstream products are used across industries including automotive, defence, textiles, plastics, electronics, construction, batteries, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.
In 2024, the EU imported BDO worth €140 million from the three countries investigated.
