The European Commission has launched a probe into allegations of “dumping” by Chinese manufacturers of mobile access equipment onto the European market.
It follows a complaint lodged on 29 September by a group of EU equipment makers calling itself the “Coalition to Restore a Level Playing Field in the EU Mobile Access Equipment Sector”.
Interested parties in the complaint include French manufacturers Haulotte and Manitou.
The coalition alleges that imports of Chinese equipment into the EU have nearly tripled since 2020, and that “significant distortions in the form of a pervasive state presence” in the Chinese manufacturing sector have undercut EU manufacturers, forcing them to sell at a loss.
They point to the liquidation of Holland Lift in August this year as evidence of the damage being done.
The saturation by Chinese equipment has absorbed all the gains of the economic rebound after the covid pandemic, they claim.
“At the same time, EU producers were caught in a scissor effect between costs increasing under the effect of inflationary pressures and market prices increasingly set by low-priced Chinese imports severely undercutting them,” states the executive summary of the coalition’s complaint.
“As a result, the market share and profitability of the Union Industry collapsed, stifling investment and threatening its very existence,” it said.
Manitou Group welcomed the probe.
“Fair competition on the European market is a prerequisite to ensure that businesses remain sustainable,” its president Michel Denis said.
“We are therefore calling for swift and decisive action by the European Commission so that our activities and that of hundreds of our industrial suppliers in the EU can continue to innovate, to provide quality jobs to their workforce and continued safety to workers across the EU.”
