Saccharin from China - USITC

PRICE DATAThe Commission requested U.S. producers and importers to provide quarterly data for the totalquantity and f.o.b. value of saccharin shipped to unrelated customers in the U.S. market during January2003-December 2008. Pricing data were requested for the following products.Product 1.—Sodium saccharin, granular, sized or unsized, FCC, 10-17 percent water.Product 2.—Sodium saccharin, powder, FCC, 3-6 percent water.Product 3.—Acid or insoluble saccharin, spray-dried powder, FCC.Product 4.—Calcium saccharin, granular, spray-dried powder, FCC.Product 5.—Sodium saccharin, granular, sized or unsized, non-food grade, 10-17 percent water.The U.S. producer and 11 importers of saccharin from China including PMC reported varyingamounts of price information. During 2003-08, the combined sales of the specified products accountedfor nearly 100 percent of PMC’s domestic shipments and 4.5 percent of imports from China.Price TrendsWeighted-average quarterly f.o.b. prices of the U.S. producer and importers of saccharin fromChina for the five products are shown in tables V- 1 through and V-5 and figure 2. PMC’s prices for allfive products increased from the first quarter of 2003 onward. The *** price increases recorded forproducts 1, 2 and 3 during 2008 involved very small sales quantities as compared to earlier periods.There is evidence that these price spikes were the result of a world-wide shortage of saccharin. 3 Thespotty price data for imports from China also reflected irregular increases for all five products.Table V-1Saccharin: Weighted-average f.o.b. prices and quantities of domestic and imported product 1, 1and margins of underselling/(overselling), by quarters, January 2003-December 2008* * * * * * *Table V-2Saccharin: Weighted-average f.o.b. selling prices and quantities for product 2, 1 and margins ofunderselling/(overselling), January 2003-December 2008* * * * * * *3According to questionnaire responses by five importers, the world’s large producer of saccharin was closed inChina creating a world-wide shortage of saccharin. ***, an importer and purchaser of saccharin reported that Suzhouwas closed by the Chinese government in October 2007, creating a global capacity shortage. Reportedly, theChinese government also asked four other saccharin producers to close for two months starting in December 2008.According to ***, these events caused prices to rise over 700 percent and it became difficult to obtain saccharin.V-3