EU may lift duty on Chinese lighters (2)

"We will increase exports to Europe if the anti-dumping duty is lifted, because of the European market's higher profit margins and large client base," Liu Jun­xiang, manager of Xingda Lighter Manufacturing Co in Hunan's Shaodong county, told the Global Times Tuesday. Currently the company mainly exports to Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

The county's exports of lighters amounted to 1.05 billion units in the first seven months of 2012, higher than other major production areas in the country, according to Hunan Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau.

"Lighter manufacturers in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province will be less affected, because they mainly produce mid- and high-end refillable lighters," Huang Fajing, head of Wenzhou Lighter Producers' Association, told the Global Times.

But the EU's decision could benefit the whole industry, Huang said, because if it decides not to extend the anti-dumping duty on cheaper flint lighters, it is less likely that it will "impose such duties on refillable lighters in the future."

In 2002, the EU launched a dumping investigation against refillable lighters from China. Led by Huang's association, Chinese lighter makers won the anti-dumping suit in 2003, and the EU soon terminated the anti-dumping case against Chinese-made refillable lighters.

Huang admitted that his association's member companies exported a decreasing number of lighters to Europe in recent years, because of sluggish demand and increasing technology barriers.

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