South Korea Issues Final Affirmative Anti‑Dumping Ruling on Chinese‑Origin Butyl Acrylate, Imposing Five‑Year Anti‑Dumping Duties

Final Anti‑Dumping Ruling and Differentiated Duty Rates

On July 23, 2026, the Korea Trade Commission released its final affirmative anti‑dumping ruling targeting butyl acrylate imported from China, recommending the Ministry of Economy and Finance impose five‑year anti‑dumping duties on the subject goods.

Duty rates vary by Chinese manufacturer: Taixing Shengke Chemical Co., Ltd. and its affiliates are subject to 11.42%; Shanghai Huayi New Materials Co., Ltd. and its affiliates face 8.32%; Pinghu Petrochemical Co., Ltd. and its affiliates bear 19.17%; all other Chinese producers and exporters are charged a unified rate of 18.69%.

The anti‑dumping investigation was formally launched on September 29, 2025. The dumping investigation period covered January 1‑December 31, 2024, while the injury investigation spanned January 1, 2021 to June 30, 2025. A preliminary affirmative ruling was published on February 12, 2026, and provisional anti‑dumping duties ranging from 9.53% to 19.17% took effect on April 22.

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China’s Butyl Acrylate Export Performance Before and After Provisional Duties

Boosted by multiple positive overseas market factors, China’s butyl acrylate exports saw sharp year‑on‑year growth in H1 2026, reaching 208,800 tonnes, up 69.48% year‑on‑year. Monthly export volumes hit recent‑year highs at 67,300 tonnes in May and 52,000 tonnes in June.

Butyl acrylate is a critical acrylate monomer widely applied in water‑borne coatings, adhesives, ASA plastics, textile emulsions and printing inks. South Korea represents one of China’s key export destinations for this product. In 2025, China exported 24,600 tonnes of butyl acrylate to South Korea, ranking as China’s third‑largest export market and accounting for 9.46% of total national exports. The anti‑dumping measures are expected to impact roughly 20,000‑25,000 tonnes of annual export volume to South Korea.

Before provisional duties took effect on April 22, China exported 65,600 tonnes of butyl acrylate in Q1 2026, among which 9,500 tonnes were shipped to South Korea, accounting for 14.48% of total exports in this period; March recorded a half‑year high of 4,800 tonnes exported to South Korea. After duties were implemented and export costs climbed, shipments to South Korea fell quarter‑on‑quarter to approximately 6,500 tonnes from April to June. South Korean buyers gradually shifted their sourcing toward suppliers from Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

Varied Impacts on Different Chinese Manufacturers

Differentiated final duty rates bring vastly different operational pressures across domestic producers.

Pinghu Petrochemical (Satellite Chemical) suffers the heaviest impact with the maximum 19.17% duty rate. As China’s largest butyl acrylate producer with 780,000‑ton annual capacity and the biggest export volume to South Korea, the high tariff erases its price competitiveness against local peers. South Korean downstream purchasers will face substantially higher procurement costs, which may lead to large‑scale order losses and worsened profit conditions.

Shanghai Huayi New Materials bears the lightest pressure at 8.32%. It retains certain price advantages within the South Korean market and can sustain basic supply capacity, with opportunities to capture orders diverted from enterprises subject to higher tariffs.

Taixing Shengke Chemical at 11.42%, plus scattered small‑and‑medium‑sized manufacturers subject to the unified 18.69% rate, lack sufficient scale‑based cost advantages. High tariffs will almost completely eliminate their competitiveness in South Korea, resulting in nearly halted exports to this market and forcing diverted cargo back into the domestic Chinese market.

Domestic Market Pressure and Global Market Restructuring Outlook

In the short run, cargo originally planned for South Korea will flow back to the domestic market, building up inventories in East and South China. The closure of the South Korean market means a permanent loss of an annual 25,000‑tonne export channel, aggravating domestic supply‑demand looseness. Without offsetting export growth from new overseas markets, butyl acrylate price upside will remain constrained even during peak‑demand seasons.

Under the five‑year tariff barrier, South Korean downstream coating and emulsion producers will turn to local capacity, Southeast Asian and Middle‑East suppliers as well as Formosa Plastics from Taiwan. China’s import market share in South Korea will keep declining.

China holds more than 58% of global butyl acrylate capacity and retains strong global supply influence. Sustainable demand gaps exist across India, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Expanding sales in alternative overseas markets can partially compensate for lost volumes to South Korea. The industry will not fall into fundamental overcapacity crisis, yet short‑term profit redistribution and market‑pattern reshaping are inevitable.

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