EU urged to probe China deal
- EU-based chemical producers asked the European Commission to investigate China’s LB Group over buying a UK plant. - They fear the site could be used to export into the EU and bypass anti-dumping duties protecting local firms. - China rejects framing of overcapacity or dumping and disputes that trade gaps prove unfair practice as investigations mount. ( )
European titanium dioxide producers have asked Brussels to investigate China’s LB Group over its planned purchase of a UK plant. (euronews.com) The complaint says LB Group wants to buy Venator Materials UK’s titanium dioxide site at Greatham in northeast England and use it to ship into the European Union. Euronews reported the complaint was filed in December 2025. (euronews.com) Titanium dioxide is a white pigment used in paints, plastics, paper and some industrial applications, and the producers behind the complaint say the Greatham plant could become a route around EU trade penalties. The coalition includes Tronox, Kronos, Precheza and Cinkarna, which Euronews said account for about 90% of EU titanium dioxide production. (euronews.com) The trade penalties at issue are anti-dumping duties the European Commission made definitive on January 9, 2025 on imports of titanium dioxide from China. The Commission opened that case on November 13, 2023 after a complaint from the European Titanium Dioxide Ad Hoc Coalition. (eur-lex.europa.eu) The producers are also pressing the Commission to use the European Union’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation, a 2022 law that lets Brussels examine whether non-EU companies used state-backed support to buy assets or win contracts in Europe. Euronews said using that tool against a deal centered on a post-Brexit UK plant would be a first. (euronews.com) The UK is reviewing the transaction too. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority opened its merger inquiry on March 16, 2026 and set May 15, 2026 as the deadline for its phase 1 decision. (gov.uk) China has rejected the wider trade language now being used against its manufacturers. In March, China’s Ministry of Commerce said a U.S. Section 301 probe into “overcapacity” was a unilateral move, and a foreign ministry spokesperson called the term itself a “false proposition.” (english.news.cn; english.news.cn) That argument is now colliding with Europe’s effort to police imports and subsidies in sectors it sees as strategic. Whether Brussels opens a case will show how far it is willing to stretch its trade-defense tools beyond the bloc’s own borders. (euronews.com; eur-lex.europa.eu)
