Caribbean Cement Company general manager Anthony Haynes has expressed delight with a preliminary ruling by the Antidumping and Subsidies Commission (ADSC) that cement imported from Vulcan materials in the USA and distributed by TankWeld Metals is likely to cause damage to the local industry.

Carib Cement, Jamaica’s sole cement producer, filed a complaint with the ASDC last year that Vulcan was selling its cement to Jamaica below fair market value. And following its preliminary investigations, the ADSC said in a notice last week that the commission finds that the cement being imported by Tankweld has indeed been dumped with an estimated margin of at least 15.13 per cent.

“The dumping is likely to cause material injury to the domestic industry i.e. continued and increased importation of the goods under consideration at dumped prices poses a threat of material injury to the domestic industry that is clearly foreseen and imminent,” said the commision in the notice.

In a press release on Friday, Haynes said the ADSC responded positively to a call by Carib Cement for “protection from unfair competition from dumped or subsidised imports and a levelling of the playing field”.

Haynes opined that the action of the ADSC was crucial to the preservation of Jamaican jobs and the bolstering of the economy.

Carib Cement added in the release: “The ADSC’s ruling has reaffirmed that the Vulcan slag cement is a like product and brings clarity to the controversy surrounding the nonapplication of the Common External Tariff (CET) to cement imported by TankWeld Metals. In light of this qualified opinion, the Company is calling on the Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce to reinstate the Common External Tariff without delay.”

Carib Cement has been engaged in a long standing dispute with importers of the commodity to Jamaica. The cement manufacturer held a monopoly until 2006 when Government granted a waiver on importations after the company sold defective products to the market. In the wake of the fiasco, Government granted the waiver to make up the resulting shortfall in the market until upgrades and expansion at the cement manufacturer’s Rockfort plant were complete.

The present administration recently granted a waiver to Tank-Weld for the importation of 60,000 tonnes of cement, a move which commerce minister Karl Samuda said would provide competition in the market.

Carib Cement said it is “optimistically awaiting” the ADSC’s final ruling within 90 days.