Allowing dumped building product imports to continue unabated will wipe out local businesses and destabilise the market, a peak industry body has warned.
Rejecting claims by the Master Builders Association (MBA) that proposed anti-dumping duties on cheap building product imports would drive up housing costs, the Building Products Industry Council (BPIC) said the duties are applied only when imports are proven to be sold below their normal overseas value. "Anti-dumping duties don't push prices up; they restore fair competition,” BPIC Executive Officer Rodger Hills said.
“They help to buffer the Australian construction sector from overseas interests intent on destroying the local market.”
More than 400 submissions made by manufacturers, unions, and industry groups in the latest Anti-Dumping Commission investigation into cheap imported glass windows and doors indicate widespread local concern about foreign-subsidised building products being dumped into the Australian market.
“These concerns are not speculative; they are grounded in real-world impacts on Australian jobs, investment, and supply chain stability,” Hills said.
"Domestic manufacturing capability cannot survive, let alone grow, under distorted market conditions; it's as simple as that," Hills said. "Australia's building product sector directly employs 243,300 people and a further 796,500 indirectly. About 262,000 firms make up the sector and manufacturing, fabrication and installation activity accounts for $67.3 billion in economic activity. Spurious claims that domestic manufacturing capability is lacking, with the gap needing to be filled by cheap dumped products, puts all those jobs and businesses at risk."
Hills said post-COVID increases in material costs, like rising builder costs, have been caused mainly by inflation and uncertainty, not the enforcement of WTO-compliant trade rules. In fact, if dumping continues unchecked it will amplify price volatility by undermining legitimate Australian producers, reducing domestic production diversity, and ceding control of product supply chains and pricing to overseas interests.
"Australia cannot deliver 1.2 million new homes based on a foundation of distorted markets and collapsing domestic production capability. A resilient construction sector requires a fair and level playing field with both competitive imports and strong local manufacturing; something impossible without enforcing anti-dumping laws," Hills said.
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Media Enquiries: Rodger Hills M: 0438 740 240 E: [email protected]
About BPIC: The Building Products Industry Council (BPIC) is the national peak body representing Australia’s leading building products industries and related services with members and associated companies directly employing over 243,000 Australians with more than 796,000 employed indirectly. Their collective industries are worth over $67.3B in annual production to the Australian economy.
For more information about BPIC visit: www.bpic.asn.au