Excavators between 11 and 80 tonnes that Caterpillar makes in China will now be subjected to tariffs, just like other Chinese excavators, although the tariff rates have now been reduced.
When the UK Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) proposed In November 2024 that a new anti-dumping duty of up to 83.5% be applied to imports of excavators of between 11 and 80 tonnes from China to the UK, it never thought to consider Caterpillar.
The tariff proposal followed an investigation of the market requested by JCB, which had complained to the UK government that Chinese manufacturers were dumping their machines in the UK.
Chinese manufactures who cooperated with the investigation negotiated lower rates: 33.03% for Sany, 59% for Liugong, 56.24% for XCMG and 56.24% for Sunward. For everyone else, up to 83.5%. These rates have now been substantially reduced to a range between 18.8% to 40.08% (see below for specifics).
Only after the TRA announced its proposals in November did Caterpillar declare that it too shipped excavators from China to the UK and should have been consulted. JCB had never mentioned Cat in its original complaint – just Sany, Liugong, XCMG and Sunward – and when TRA officials began their study they could find no records of Chinese Cats entering the UK. This is because Finning UK, the UK Cat dealer, had been bringing them in via an affiliate based in Switzerland.
In February, Caterpillar (Xuzhou) Ltd (CXL) launched a judicial review against the TRA and the Department of Business & Trade’s decision to impose provisional anti-dumping measures on imports of Chinese excavators.
However the judge in the case concluded that the TRA, in its decisions surrounding the provisional anti-dumping measures, had acted lawfully, rationally and in a procedurally fair manner. The judgement did not affect the decision to apply anti-dumping measures.
With this resolved, the secretary of state for business & trade, Jonathan Reynolds, has accepted the TRA’s recommendation to impose new anti-dumping measures on imports of excavators from China to the UK.
The recommended duty rates now are
- Liugong: 20.09%
- Sany: 32.82%
- Caterpillar: 18.81%
- XCMG: 24.32%
- Sunward: 24.32%
- Others: 40.08%.
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