No you’re not experiencing a bad case of Deja Vu. You have actually read this article about a new Plywood Tariff from us before…but it was 4 years ago. And then the tariff went away…
…it’s baaaaaaack!
On April 18th, the US Department of Commerce passed a Countervailing Duty of 10% (9.89% actually) on Chinese Imported plywood. Some Chinese companies received up to a 111% tariff because they did not cooperate or comply with the study. Moreover there is an additional Anti Dumping measure in discussion that next month could add another 50-60% tariff on top of the Countervailing Duty.
Needless to say there is a lot of frustration and confusion in the plywood sector right now. In the past we have seen domestic plywood prices climb in response to import product tariffs. Prices across the board dropped after the last CV tariff was voted down but they didn’t really drop back to original levels.
Now we take another lap on the plywood market merry-go-round and hold our breath to see what will happen next month with the anti dumping tariff. Yet again, plywood prices will be on the rise certainly for import plywood, and most likely domestic panels will increase in response too.
domestic Plywood prices will stabilize
Most of the plywood mills that we work with started preparing for this months ago and we have a good supply of panels at the old prices in stock. But this tariff is retroactive and will apply to any plywood purchased up to 90 days prior. This could be a tough bill to stomach for a lot of importers who continued to buy after the rumors of this tariff started circulating. Most of the more savvy importers have stopped buying plywood to avoid the tariff until the dust settles not only on this AD measure but the impending CV tariff on its way next month. Those companies are essentially rationing out their current inventory in the meantime but there is no avoiding the gap in buying that could cause major shortages in the supply chain in a few months.
On that cherry note, we will keep you, the fearless reader, updated as this situation develops and keep doing our best to supply the plywood that you need. Fortunately most of our inventory is domestically produced panels or European made panels.
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