The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation (MOFTEC) said it has not received a petition from domestic tin manufacturers to restrict imports and refused to make any further comment.
"I have read about reports on a call for protective measures from domestic tin manufacturers but no formal petitions have been passed on to me," an official in charge of anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and protective measures said
He said firms normally hire a law firm to collect materials for them and to file anti-dumping cases with his department.
Eight Chinese tin manufacturers recently announced that they had written to the MOFTEC and the State Economic and Trade Commission (SETC) to call for protective measures and restrictions on tin imports.
The eight companies are the Shanghai Baoshan Iron and Steel Co Ltd, the Wuhan Iron and Steel Co Ltd, the Guangzhou Pacific Ocean Tin Co Ltd, the Zhongshan Zhongyue Tin Co Ltd, the Hainan Haiyu Tin Co Ltd, the Jiangsu Union Tin Co Ltd, the Fujian Union Tin Co Ltd and the Fujian Zhongrida Metal Co Ltd.
Most of these companies are co-operative plants with Taiwanese and Japanese partnerships.
The eight companies, China's only tin manufacturers, said an upsurge in tin imports from South Korea, the Common Wealth of Independent States, Europe and Australia have damaged the healthy development of the domestic industry.
Tin imports from these countries last year increased by 50 per cent year-on-year and occupied 40 per cent of the China market, said the companies, adding that the average price of the imports is 30 per cent lower than average domestic prices.
They estimated that China's annual tin demand is up to 1 million tons, and domestic production has a capacity of about 1.4 million tons.
Running under capacity, the eight companies said they have gone into the red and had to fire surplus workers despite having advanced technology and producing the same quality as imported tin products.
The eight companies have called for the government to impose limiting measures on the quantity of China's tin imports over the next three to four years.
Lin Qixie, vice-general manager of Zhongrida, said they have mailed their written petitions to the MOFTEC and the SETC.
But statistics from the companies also indicate that China's tin imports from Japan and South Africa fell last year.
On top of that, while the average price of imports has dropped from US$484 per ton to US$467 per ton, the price of domestically made tin rose from US$556 per ton to US$634 per ton.
(China Daily 02/13/01)
