The U.S. Department of Commerce preliminarily determined that hardwood and decorative plywood from China was sold in the United States at less than fair value during the period Oct. 1, 2024, through March 31, 2025, and it also made a preliminary affirmative determination of critical circumstances. Starting March 2, 2026, the publication date of the Commerce Department notice in the Federal Register, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will begin suspending liquidation and collecting cash deposits on covered entries at the applicable rates.
The notice sets an estimated weighted-average dumping margin of 187.27% for the China-wide entity and an adjusted cash-deposit rate of 185.96% for the listed producer-exporter combinations as well as for the China-wide entity.
Image: Listed producer-exporter pairs and preliminary rates / U.S. Department of Commerce
Entries tied to listed producer-exporter combinations will be subject to the cash-deposit rates set out in the notice, while unlisted Chinese exporters without separate-rate status, and third-country exporters not listed, will be subject to the China-wide rate.
Because of the preliminary critical-circumstances finding for the China-wide entity and certain non-selected separate-rate companies, the suspension of liquidation will apply to affected unliquidated entries made on or after Dec. 2, 2025 - the date that is 90 days before publication of the notice.
Commerce said the China-wide entity included Linyi Evergreen Wood Co., Ltd. and Xuzhou Shelter Import and Export Co., Ltd., among other non-responsive producers and exporters, and that it relied on facts otherwise available with adverse inferences after the selected respondents did not respond to its antidumping questionnaire.
If provisional measures in a parallel countervailing-duty case expire before those in this antidumping proceeding, cash-deposit rates could revert to the unadjusted dumping margins.
Shipments of hardwood plywood from China to the United States have been falling for nine straight years. U.S. imports from China declined from about 2.0 million m3 in 2016 to 52.8 thousand m3 in 2025, a drop of about 38 times.
Image: U.S. imports of hardwood plywood from China, 2016–2025 (volume, thousand m3) / Lesprom Analytics
The United States imported 3.23 million m3 of hardwood plywood in 2025, up 20% year-on-year, while import value rose 22% to $2,402 million and the average import price increased 2% to $743 per m3, according to Lesprom Analytics. Vietnam supplied 980 thousand m3, up 33%, taking a 30% share of total imports. Indonesia shipped 891 thousand m3, up 40%, lifting its share to 28%. Canada supplied 183 thousand m3, down 17%, and Russia supplied 178 thousand m3, up 3%.
Commerce said it plans to issue its final determination by May 10, 2026, within 75 days of the preliminary decision’s Feb. 24 signature date, after which the U.S. International Trade Commission will decide whether the U.S. industry was materially injured by the imports.