Recently, the European Union decided to impose another one-year anti-dumping duty on energy-saving light bulbs imported from China for compact energy-saving fluorescent lamps. In the previous September, India filed an anti-dumping investigation against China's energy-saving lamps, and investigated from April 1, 2006 to 2007. Exported products to Indian companies during the March 31 period. At this point, Foshan energy-saving lamp manufacturers represented by Foshan Lighting and Osram are facing the difficult situation of “two-line operationsâ€.
Domestic energy-saving lamps have suffered
In fact, since 2001, the EU has imposed an anti-dumping duty of 5 years and a maximum of 66.1% on energy-saving light bulbs produced in China. In fact, in recent years, the EU’s call for the lifting of anti-dumping duties on Chinese energy-saving light bulbs has been constant.
On the one hand, under the general trend of global energy conservation and environmental protection, the EU attaches great importance to environmental protection issues. In early March of this year, EU member states signed an environmental agreement. In two years, European countries will gradually replace energy consumption with energy-saving fluorescent bulbs. Vintage incandescent bulbs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. According to estimates by the European Commission, if all households in the EU change incandescent lamps into energy-saving lamps, they can reduce household lighting consumption by 60%, which means that the EU's market demand for energy-saving lamps will be further expanded. On the other hand, with some large international energy-saving lamp companies shifting their production bases to China, a considerable number of energy-saving light bulbs produced in China are actually produced by EU companies in China. Currently, the EU mainly includes Philips, the Netherlands. Energy-saving bulb manufacturers have factories in China, and most of Philips' products need to be exported from China to Europe. Therefore, the EU has imposed anti-dumping duties on China's energy-saving light bulbs for one year. The sanctions are also included in these foreign companies in China. According to Philips estimates, due to the EU's anti-dumping duties on energy-saving light bulbs produced in China, the company loses 20 million euros a year, so most EU energy-saving light bulb manufacturers want to stop anti-dumping duties.
It is precisely because of this that when the anti-dumping measures expired in July last year, the EU, at the request of a few lighting equipment manufacturers, launched a 15-month investigation on energy-saving light bulbs produced in China to decide whether to continue to impose anti-dumping. tax. In August this year, the European Commission proposed to continue to impose a one-year anti-dumping duty on energy-saving lamps produced in China and submit this proposal to the European Council for approval.
In fact, the EU's obstacles to the export of China's energy-saving products are far from this. In addition to the trade barriers of anti-dumping duties, the EU also exerts influence through technical barriers. The most famous of these are the three green directives - the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive), the Directive on Restricting the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS Directive) and Energy Consumption. Product Eco Design Framework Directive (EUP Directive).
Lamps and beautiful pictures:
New measures have limited impact
Although tariff barriers have caused China's energy-saving bulbs to export to the EU market to rise sharply by 25% to 66% in the EU, in recent years, China's energy-saving lamps have continued to grow in exports to Europe. According to statistics from the European Union from July 2005 to June 2006, 69% of energy-saving lamps on the market are produced in China. The data shows that China's exports of energy-saving lamps to Europe from 2001 to 2006 are growing, but it cannot be denied that growth is relatively slow.
In this regard, experts believe that the EU anti-dumping tax policy has been implemented for six years, so its impact on China's energy-saving lamps exports is limited compared with the initial implementation. At the same time, at the EU spring summit that ended on March 9 this year, the participants reached an agreement that European countries will gradually replace the old-fashioned incandescent lamps with high energy consumption with energy-saving fluorescent lamps within two years. At present, the local products of the EU countries can only meet the market demand of 25%, and the prices are generally expensive. These positive factors have promoted the export of China's energy-saving lamps.
As the main base for the production and export of energy-saving lamps in China, according to the statistics of Fuzhou Customs, from January to July this year, Fujian Province accumulated 280 million energy-saving lamps, valued at 320 million US dollars, an increase of 79.6% and 86.3% respectively over the same period last year. In another province where energy-saving lamps are produced in Guangdong, the export situation is equally gratifying. According to statistics from Huangpu Customs, from January to August this year, Guangdong Province exported a total of 330 million energy-saving lamps, an increase of 47.1% over the same period last year.
Enterprises still need to work hard
However, due to the fact that China's export of energy-saving lamps is mainly based on general trade, there are also hidden concerns behind the increase in quantity. For example, China’s share of EU energy-saving lamps exports accounted for China’s energy-saving lamp exports has shrunk from 26% in 2000 to 13% in 2006. It should be noted that on August 30, India officially filed an anti-dumping case against China's energy-saving lamp exports. If a high anti-dumping tax rate is imposed, it will surely curb the rapid growth of China's energy-saving lamps on the Indian market.
Technical standards are another barrier that companies face to overcome. Although there are international standards for energy-saving lamps, international standards only require common requirements. When exporting to a certain country or region, energy-saving lamps need to meet local standards. This requires enterprises to continuously improve product quality and technical standards.
To this end, the industry believes that China's energy-saving lamps enterprises should actively adjust the industrial layout, relying on independent innovation, and cross-related foreign trade barriers. At the same time, due to the domestic market, according to the statistics of China Lighting Association, in 2006, China's energy-saving lamp production reached 2.4 billion, of which 80% were sold abroad, while in China, the annual consumption of high-energy incandescent lamps still reached 3 billion. Only left and right, therefore, the domestic energy-saving lamp market is promising.
Lamps and beautiful pictures:
Guangzhou Winson Information Technology Co., Ltd. , https://www.winsonintelligent.com