EU hits China with 20.6% tariff on wheels used by BMW and Renault

The duty punishes Chinese exporters including YHI Manufacturing (Shanghai) Co. for selling the wheels in the 27-nation EU below cost, a practice known as dumping.

Car manufacturers including Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the world's biggest maker of luxury autos, and Renault SA use the wheels.

European aluminum-wheel producers including Borbet Solingen GmbH of Germany, Francaise de Roues and Italy's Speedline Srl suffered “material injury” as a result of dumped imports from China, the European Commission, the EU's trade authority in Brussels, said Tuesday in the Official Journal. The levy is for six months and may be prolonged for five years.

Chinese exporters doubled their combined share of the EU market for aluminum wheels to 12.4 percent in the 12 months through June 2009 compared with 2006, according to the commission. EU producers' share of their home market fell to 72 percent from 78 percent over the period, the commission said.

The trade protection is the preliminary outcome of a probe stemming from a June 30, 2009, dumping complaint by the Association of European Wheel Manufacturers on behalf of producers that account for more than half of the EU's output of the wheels targeted by the levy. As a result of the complaint, the commission began an inquiry in August.

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