MOC Drops Corning 'Dumping' Charge

CORNING, N.Y., Jan. 3 -- Corning Inc. said it received a positive final determination from China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC), in Beijing, on Jan. 1 that affirmed the company's position that it did not "dump" standard single-mode optical fiber into the Chinese market. The MOC initiated an anti-dumping investigation on July 1, 2003, against certain standard single-mode optical fiber products based in the US, Japan and Korea, alleging that foreign products were being imported and sold at lower prices than the market conditions justified, and that Chinese domestic producers were injured as a result. The investigation was based on a complaint filed by two Chinese fiber manufacturers against several optical fiber producers.(See "Corning Disputes 'Dumping' Allegation," June 16, 2004)

Corning said the MOC concluded it had not dumped standard single-mode optical fiber into the Chinese market, since the margin between its home country pricing and its pricing in China was less than the statutory minimum threshold. The government ministry eliminated its preliminary determination (in effect since June 16) of a 16-percent dumping margin, which means that no dumping margin will be applied against Corning imports, effective immediately.

The MOC also ruled that optical fiber imports from the US, Korea and Japan collectively caused injury to the domestic Chinese fiber industry. As a consequence of this injury finding, individual dumping margins have been assigned to the specific companies from countries found guilty by the MOC of dumping optical fiber. However, in Corning's case, no dumping margin was found, the company said.

"We are very pleased with the MOC's final determination with regard to Corning. We have a tremendous amount of respect for the MOC and the process they followed to reach their final decision. We thank the Chinese government for bringing this matter to a final resolution," said Robert B. Brown, senior vice president and general manager of Corning Optical Fiber.

For more information, visit: www.corning.com