EU anti-dumping on copper tubes from China: timeline and cost simulator

The EU opened anti-dumping case AD750 on copper tube in level wound coils from China, Mexico, Vietnam and Uzbekistan on 12 March 2026, and imports have been under registration since late May. Provisional duties, if any, must be published no later than 12 November 2026, and definitive ones are scheduled for 11 May 2027. The rate is not known yet, so the simulator leaves it open; this page is updated on the day provisional duties are published.

Timeline of case AD750

Simulate your landed cost

With the example figures (12 €/kg CIF, 0.30 €/kg after the border and a 25% margin) and a test anti-dumping rate of 20%, the duty adds 2.40 €/kg and the landed cost goes from 12.30 to 14.70 €/kg, 19.5% more. To keep the margin, the tube’s selling price goes from 16.40 to 19.60 €/kg. If the tube is 20% of the cost of an installation kit, the kit goes up 3.9%. The 20% is a number to test with, not a forecast: nobody knows the rate yet.

Which tube is covered

The notice of initiation defines the product as pipes and tubes of refined copper, in level wound coils, whether smooth or with inner grooves, not further processed. They are declared under CN ex 7411 10 90, TARIC code 7411 10 90 10. This is the coiled copper tube used in refrigeration and air conditioning (inferred). There are four countries of origin: China, Mexico, Vietnam and Uzbekistan. The investigation period runs from 1 January to 31 December 2025, and injury trends are examined from 1 January 2022.

As the definition is worded, straight lengths and tube that arrives already built into equipment or a heat exchanger are not covered (inferred from the product definition). If your tube is insulated or cut, check how you declare it: the TARIC code decides whether the duty applies.

Registration and retroactive duties

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1161 of 22 May 2026, published on 26 May, makes these imports subject to registration on the Commission’s own initiative, under Article 14(5) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036. Registration exists so that, if duties are imposed in the end, they can also be levied on goods already registered. The regulation itself says the conditions for retroactive collection will be assessed in the regulation imposing definitive duties, if any.

The regulation also gives the figures alleged by the complainant: dumping margins of 5% to 35% and an injury elimination level of 8% to 20%, calculated for July 2024 to June 2025. The duty would normally be the lower of the two (Article 9(4)). If the Commission finds raw material distortions, it can set it at the full dumping margin (Article 7(2b)); the notice of initiation records that the complainant alleges such distortions in China and Vietnam, where copper, 75% of the cost of the tube, is subject to export tariffs. The Commission warns that these figures are for information only and that it cannot yet estimate the amount.

The conditions for retroactive collection are in Article 10(4) of Regulation 2016/1036: a definitive duty may only be levied on products entered for consumption no more than 90 days before the date provisional measures apply, and never before the investigation was opened. On top of that, the goods must be registered, importers must have had a chance to comment, there must be a history of dumping or the importer knew or should have known about it, and imports must have kept rising substantially. If provisional duties apply from mid-November, that 90-day window reaches back to mid-August 2026 (inferred).

How the duty hits the price

The importer pays it when the goods are cleared through customs. There is no AD750 duty yet, but the regulations that impose anti-dumping duties normally set them as a percentage of the “net, free-at-Union-frontier price, before duty”; for example, Article 1(2) of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/546 on aluminium extrusions from China, which applies the customs duty rules for everything else (Article 1(5)). That is the price delivered to the EU border, with freight and insurance up to it, the same CIF basis on which the conventional duty is calculated (inferred). What you pay after that, such as unloading or inland transport, is not part of that basis. Import VAT comes on top and a VAT-registered importer recovers it, so the simulator leaves it out.

Anti-dumping regulations usually set one rate for each investigated exporter and a higher one for all other companies in the country (inferred from earlier cases). Until the provisional regulation is out, you will not know which one applies to your supplier. TARIC gives the conventional duty for your code; the simulator leaves it blank for you to fill in.

If you index your price list to copper, the anti-dumping duty is one more cost that does not follow the LME: it goes in the fixed part of the formula. The metal-indexed price list guide explains how. For the carbon border adjustment, which does not cover copper, see the CBAM 50-tonne threshold guide.

What to prepare before 12 November

1. List the tube references you buy from China, Mexico, Vietnam or Uzbekistan and the TARIC code they are declared under.
2. Separate tube in coils from straight lengths and from tube that arrives assembled: not all of it is covered.
3. Collect your import declarations since late May 2026: those are the registered goods.
4. Ask your supplier whether it is cooperating in the investigation and what it will do with the rate it gets.
5. Check in your contracts who bears a provisional or retroactive duty under each incoterm.
6. Run two or three rates through the simulator and decide what you will do with your price list in each case.

How HeavyDeals helps

HeavyDeals keeps each copper tube price as a formula (LME copper index, EUR/USD and margin) with each customer’s discount, recalculates the catalog when an input changes and publishes nothing until someone on your team approves it. See how it works or go back to the guides.

Every figure and rule was checked against the sources above, on the date shown next to each; last review of this guide: 11 October 2026. The examples use illustrative figures, not today’s quotes. This is not legal or tax advice. Written with the help of AI and reviewed by the HeavyDeals team.