LANGLEY, B.C. - Hardwoods Distribution Inc. reported in a regulatory notification about the November 18, 2016 trade petition was filed in the United States with against imported hardwood plywood from China. For publicly traded Hardwoods the notification is required because the plywood petition has a potential impact on its business.
"We will closely monitor the situation and make adjustments to our product sourcing that arise as a result of developments in this new trade case," said Rob Brown, President and CEO of Hardwoods.
In its notification, Hardwoods Distribution said:
A group of U.S. manufacturers of hardwood and decorative plywood with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission, alleges that imports of Chinese manufactured hardwood plywood are sold in the United States at prices below cost, and are subsidized by the Government of China. The Petition claims that U.S. manufacturers of hardwood and decorative plywood have suffered material competitive injury and requests that the U.S. Government investigate whether antidumping and countervailing duties should be applied against the value of imported hardwood plywood originating from China.
This is the second trade case initiated by the Petitioners. The original trade case, which was filed on September 27, 2012, was dismissed on November 5, 2013
by the U.S. International Trade Commission. The Petitioners appealed the ITC's decision in the original trade case to the U.S. Court of International Trade,
however that appeal was extinguished on September 19, 2016.
Hardwoods sells a wide range of architectural building products to customers in North America, including hardwood plywood products. Hardwoods strategy for the hardwood plywood product category includes selling both imported and domestically produced hardwood plywood, in order to satisfy the demand and diverse product preferences of its customers.
In the event that trade duties were levied against Chinese hardwood plywood, this would impact the market for hardwood plywood in the United States. These
impacts could include significant changes to the selling prices, margins, and/or product supply availability of both imported and domestically manufactured
hardwood plywood. However the Company estimates that after considering the recent acquisition of Rugby Architectural Building Products which was
completed in July 2016, the proportion of its total sales falling within the scope of this trade case is less than 11 percent of annual revenues.
Hardwoods is North America's largest distributor of high-grade hardwood lumber, sheet goods, architectural millwork and non-structural architectural grade building products to the residential and commercial construction markets. The Company operates a North American network of 60 distribution centres, as well as one sawmill and kiln drying operation.