The European Union is imposing substantial anti-dumping duties on large shipments of Chinese optical fibre cables after concluding they were sold at artificially low prices that harmed European producers.
On Thursday, the European Commission announced the introduction of these duties following a formal investigation. The measures aim to protect European manufacturers such as Prysmian, Corning, and Acome by restoring fair competition and addressing material injury caused by imports priced below normal value.
Major Chinese optical fibre cable manufacturers identified in the investigation include Yangtze Optical FC, Hengtong Group, FiberHome, and Futong.
The duties applied by the EU are as follows:
| Company | Anti-dumping duty |
| FTT group: – FiberHome Telecommunication Technologies Co., Ltd. – Nanjing Wasin Fujikura Optical Communication Ltd. – Hubei Fiberhome Boxin Electronic Co., Ltd. |
44.0% |
| ZTT group: – Jiangsu Zhongtian Technology Co., Ltd. – Zhongtian Power Optical Cable Co., Ltd. |
19.7% |
| Other cooperating companies | 31.2% |
| All other companies | 44.0% |
Industry association Europacable filed the complaint on behalf of European producers. Europacable noted that about 1.2 million kilometres (roughly 745,000 miles) of optical cable were sold in Europe in 2020, with China accounting for an estimated 15–20% of that volume.
Philippe Vanhille, EVP of the Telecom Division at Prysmian Group, welcomed the decision, saying the move demonstrates Europe’s willingness to act against unfair trade practices and to defend sustainable availability of quality components for European optical infrastructure.
“We welcome today’s European Commission decision and it is reassuring to see that Europe is able to strongly act against unfair practices. Fair competition must be ensured in the interest of our customers and stakeholders, to guarantee a sustainable availability of quality components for the construction of the European optical infrastructure.
We believe it is fundamental to maintain high-quality standards in the optical fibre segment, in order to ensure faster, more stable optical networks, cost-effective, and environmentally-friendly installations with lower operating costs and an increased network lifespan.
Only by doing this will be able to guarantee that the integrity of the network infrastructure is secured, stability is increased across all bands, and possibilities are opened up for system evolution.”
Only a small number of European telecom operators cooperated with the investigation, likely because many benefited from lower-priced cables for network rollouts. Deutsche Telekom was among the few major operators that participated and raised concerns about potential price impacts.
Deutsche Telekom warned in legal submissions that anti-dumping duties on optical fibre cable from China could create challenges in securing supply to meet EU demand, risk delaying network deployments, and result in higher costs for European customers.
The Commission acknowledged that the duties will likely lead to higher prices for operators. However, it concluded that optical fibre represents a relatively small portion of overall rollout costs—particularly for 5G deployments—and that the need to address unfair export practices outweighed the potential price effects.
After assessing the evidence, the European Commission determined it was necessary to act decisively against what it described as the unfair export behaviour of certain Chinese exporters to protect the EU industry.
(Photo by Ernesto Velázquez on Unsplash)
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