The investigation began after Australia’s sole LLDPE manufacturer, Melbourne-based Qenos Pty. Ltd., applied for ACBPS to levy a dumping duty on the Canadian and U.S. manufacturers.

ACBPS’s initial investigation agreed with the claim, which means a formal investigation continues. ACBPS must now complete a “statement of essential facts” by Sept. 15. Parties will be invited to comment within 20 days of the statement being made public. ACBPS must then make a recommendation to the Federal Customs Minister by Oct. 30 on whether to impose penalties.

The application names two Canadian companies, Dow Chemical Canada Inc. and Nova Chemicals Corp., and four U.S. companies: Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP, Formosa Plastics, Dow Chemical Co. and Exxon Mobil Chemical.

Stephen Bell, Qenos general manager-commercial, told ACBPS the company had been forced to meet the importers’ prices to maintain market share. Qenos said most of the imported LLDPE was rotational molding grade with ultraviolet stablilizer.

Chevron Phillips Chemical Co., in a letter to ACBPS, said it only imported medium density PE to Australia.

Stephen J. Orava, a lawyer with King & Spalding LLP in Washington, represented the Dow companies. He said Qenos was unable to meet the Australian market demand for LLDPE of 352 million pounds per year, as it produced only 265 million pounds. Qenos also did not produce all grades, so imports were needed, and Qenos itself imported some grades, Orava said.

Orava’s 21-page submission to ACBPS said the global financial crisis and Qenos’s decision to shift from producing film and packaging grade LLDPE to rotational molding grades were reasons for declining profit, not imports. He also said the end of a drought in Australia influenced the market, because 2007 had been a “boom year” for production of LLDPE water storage tanks.

Peter Hexter, corporate account manager for Dow Chemical (Aust.) Ltd., agreed, adding that Dow did not import rotomolding-grade LLDPE into Australia from the U.S. or Canada.

Melbourne-based Aperio Group Pty. Ltd., which buys LLDPE from Qenos and import sources, said there was no conclusive evidence of damage to Qenos’s market share and business because of imports, which at times were priced higher than the domestic product.

Another submission — ACBPS suppressed the company name at the author’s request — accused Qenos of withholding supply before a price rise and said having imports available to complete with the sole Australian manufacturer was beneficial for the Australian market. It said imported material was inferior to Qenos’s product and the manufacturer therefore could not argue that imported product was “interchangeable.”

Qenos plants in Sydney and Melbourne produce high, low and linear low density PE and specialty polymers.

Qenos is a subsidiary of China National Bluestar (Group) Co. Ltd., a joint venture between China National Chemical Corp. (ChemChina) and Blackstone Group. ChemChina is a large-scale state-owned enterprise established by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China. Blackstone is a global alternative asset manager and provides financial advisory services.