The European Union announced last week the commencement of an anti-dumping investigation on imports from Chinese producers of flat-rolled aluminium products.

Per the European Commission, the industry provided enough evidence of the harm to supplies of raw materials in the Union the underpriced imports of flat-rolled aluminium from China has wrought. The formal complaint to the Commission was made by the aluminium trade group European Aluminium at the end of June.

Chinese importers and other interested parties have ten days to respond to the investigation and the types of aluminium products that should be included in it. Among the products under investigation are aluminium sheets, coils, coiled strips, aluminium circles of a thickness of 0.03mm to 6mm, and aluminium plates of over 6mm.

Not included in the investigation will be aluminium cans, body panels for automobiles, and aircraft parts of a thickness greater than 0.8mm.

EA said China shipped almost twice as much flat-rolled aluminium to Europe last year than it did in 2016. Currently imports of aluminium from China account for 12 percent of the market.

This investigation will run alongside a separate investigation over imports of aluminium exclusions from China, which began in February. Anti-dumping measures from the new investigation could be imposed as early as next spring.