Brussels keeps 15.8 percent anti-dumping duty on Korean heavyweight thermal paper

The European Commission has kept in force a definitive anti-dumping duty of 15.8 % on imports of certain heavyweight thermal paper originating in the Republic of Korea, closing an expiry review opened a year ago. The measure is set out in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/2311, adopted in Brussels on 19 October 2026 and published in the Official Journal of the European Union, L series, on 20 October 2026. It enters into force on 21 October 2026, the day after publication.

A duty first imposed in 2020, now extended

The duty was originally introduced by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1524 of 19 October 2020, and the rate has stayed at 15.8 % of the net, free-at-Union-frontier price before duty. The review was requested on 16 July 2025 by the European Thermal Paper Association (ETPA) and its members on behalf of the Union industry, and the Commission initiated the procedure on 17 October 2025 under Article 11(2) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036, the basic anti-dumping regulation.

Dumping was examined from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025, the review investigation period, while injury trends were assessed from 1 January 2022 to the end of that period. The product concerned is thermal paper weighing more than 65 g/m², sold in jumbo rolls at least 20 cm wide, weighing 50 kg or more and with a diameter of 40 cm or more, coated with a thermo-sensitive substance; it falls under CN codes ex 4809 90 00, ex 4811 59 00 and ex 4811 90 00 (TARIC codes 4809 90 00 20, 4811 59 00 20 and 4811 90 00 20).

No Korean producer cooperated

No exporting producer in the Republic of Korea replied to the questionnaires or agreed to be sampled, so the Commission applied Article 18 of the basic regulation and relied on facts available. It constructed a normal value of EUR 2 060 per tonne against an ex-works export price of EUR 1 827.70 per tonne, producing a dumping margin of 11.4 %, a figure the Commission itself describes as the outcome of a conservative approach.

Hansol Paper, the only exporter identified in the original investigation and by far the largest Korean producer of the product, is credited with capacity for the wider division of between 275 000 and 355 000 tonnes a year, at least five times Korean domestic consumption. Korean exports to the Union fell from 18 500–20 500 tonnes in the original investigation period to 2 036 tonnes in the review period, a 2.5 % market share, after peaking at 7 740 tonnes and 5.8 % in 2023.

A Union industry still in loss

Nine Union producers make the product; three were sampled and verified — Jujo Thermal Oy (Kauttua, Finland), Kanzan Spezialpapiere GmbH (Düren, Germany) and Koehler Paper SE (Oberkirch, Germany). Union production reached 158 241 tonnes in the review period and Union consumption 128 075 tonnes, down 22 % over the period considered.

• Profitability of the sampled producers: 6.9 % in 2022, –4.9 % in 2023, 1.7 % in 2024 and –3.6 % in the review period.
• Unit cost of production: EUR 2 281 per tonne, up 17 % over the period.
• Employment: 900 workers, down 14 %.
• Capacity utilisation: 62 %.
• Price undercutting by Korean imports: 4 % including the duty, 17.1 % excluding it.

Importers and users stayed silent

No unrelated importer and no user came forward or cooperated, as had largely been the case in the original investigation. The Commission concluded that maintaining the duties serves the interest of the Union industry, supported by ETPA members representing more than 75 % of Union production, and that there are no compelling Union-interest reasons against the extension.

For distributors, converters and label printers, the outcome means Korean jumbo rolls keep a 15.8 % price handicap at the Union border for a further five years, while European mills retain protection in a market that shrank by more than a fifth since 2022 and where the sampled producers were again loss-making in the review period.

Source: Official Journal of the European Union, L series, No. 2026/2311, 20 October 2026, p. 1 (official reference: CELEX 32026R2311).