No new barrier set for imported LPG cylinders

The Tariff Commission found no definitive reason to impose new safeguard measures on liquified petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders that are being imported to the Philippines.

The Commission issued its findings in a decision dated July 26, around six months after it began the formal investigation acting on the petition of the Ferrotech Steel Corp., which touts itself as the largest manufacturer of LPG cylinders in the Philippines.

Among the findings was that importation of the steel cylinders saw an increase relative to domestic production from 2017 to 2023.

The Commission also noted that during those seven years, the annual supply of LPG tanks in the Philippine market ranged between 11,500 metric tons (MT) and 26,000 MT.

Meanwhile, the average supply in the last three years was found to be about 13,000 MT.

The bulk of imports during the period were sourced from China, which had a 92-percent share of total imports. Shipments from Vietnam and Japan were at far second and third place, at 3 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

In the first three years during the period of under assessment, the domestic industry was the dominant player in the Philippines, with a market share of 60.23 percent in 2017, 68.92 percent in 2018, and 70.98 percent in 2019.

In 2020, it dwindled to 58.75 percent and fell further to 50.29 percent in 2021, 31.10 percent in 2022, before making a significant recovery to 52.79 percent in 2023.

Despite an observed increase in imports of LPG steel cylinders, the Tariff Commission noted that available industry-wide data are insufficient to conclude that it has caused “serious injury or threat” to the local industry.

“In the absence of a positive determination of serious injury or threat thereof, neither can the causal relationship between increased import of LPG steel cylinder and serious injury or threat thereof to the domestic industry be established,” it said in the same report.

“Considering that not all the elements for the imposition of a definitive safeguard duty were met, the commission hereby concludes its formal investigation and recommends that no definitive general safeguard measure be imposed on importations of the LPG steel cylinders subject of this investigation,” the report said further. INQ