Saudi Arabia GAFT: definitive anti-dumping duties on titanium dioxide from China (19.39%-45% CIF, 5-year measure)

Mechanism

GAFT initiated the anti-dumping investigation into Chinese titanium dioxide imports on 9 October 2024 following a complaint from the Saudi TiO2 producer (Cristal/Tronox's Saudi operations, now part of Tronox's Yanbu facility). The final determination, issued 27 October 2025, found dumping and material injury and imposed producer-specific CIF duty rates:

Product scope: pigments or preparations based on titanium dioxide containing more than 80% TiO2 by dry weight, classified under HS 3206.11. Anatase-grade TiO2 is explicitly excluded given its distinct end-use profile (food, cosmetics, pharma). The measure was published in the Umm Al-Qura official gazette and took effect 28 October 2025, running for five calendar years to 26 October 2030 (subject to interim/sunset review). The Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA) is directed to collect the duty at the border.

Market context

This is Saudi Arabia's first trade-remedy action on the IPTM register — all ten prior SA entries are industrial-policy or FDI-screening measures (mining investment law, national industrial strategy, PDPL enforcement, mandatory-list localization, mining licensing rounds, SEZ regulations). It joins a global wall of TiO2 trade defence against Chinese overcapacity that already includes the EU (Commission Implementing Regulation 2025/4, definitive since 9 Jan 2025), India (DGTR final findings, 12 Feb 2025), and Brazil (GECEX Resolução 802/2025, effective 24 Oct 2025) — four separate jurisdictions running parallel, independently-initiated anti-dumping investigations against the same Chinese TiO2 exporters (Lomon Billions/LB Group and Anhui Gold Star appear as named respondents in all four cases) within roughly a 10-month window. This is a distinct statutory authority and regulator (Saudi Law of Trade Remedies in International Trade / GAFT) from the EU, Indian, and Brazilian proceedings — filed here as a NEW action, not an amendment to those files.

China's TiO2 capacity, led by Lomon Billions and CNNC Hua Yuan Titanium, has expanded substantially since 2018 with production costs well below Gulf, European, and Indian/Brazilian producers, driving the synchronized trade-defence response. TiO2 is a strategic pigment/feedstock input for paints, plastics, and coatings with no readily available substitute at comparable cost and opacity performance.

Downstream implications

• Saudi/GCC paints, coatings and plastics compounders: input cost uplift on Chinese TiO2 (19.39%-45% CIF); likely to accelerate sourcing shifts toward non-Chinese suppliers (Tronox's own Yanbu/Saudi operations, or non-Chinese imports).
• LB Group / Lomon Billions and Anhui Gold Star: now face anti-dumping duties in four separate jurisdictions (EU, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia) on the same product within a single year, indicating a structurally squeezed export environment for Chinese TiO2 producers.
• Cross-jurisdictional pattern: watch for GCC-wide harmonization (UAE, other GCC states following Saudi's lead) or Chinese WTO dispute filings mirroring DS636 against the EU measure.

Open questions

• Will other GCC states (UAE, Bahrain, Oman) follow with parallel TiO2 anti-dumping investigations, given GCC customs-union coordination on trade remedies?
• Will China file a WTO dispute against the Saudi measure, as it did against the EU (DS636)?
• Full text of the GAFT final determination notice (Arabic-language Umm Al-Qura gazette publication) was not directly retrieved — confirm exact producer-specific rate table and effective-date wording against the primary gazette text when available.