China has started to impose charges on imported toluene diisocyanate, or TDI, a main raw material of polyurethane products, from the European Union as of Tuesday after a preliminary finding by the Ministry of Commerce that the EU has been "dumping" it on the Chinese market.

The probe was launched by the ministry in March and EU exporters, including Bayer MaterialScience AG, Perstorp France and Dow Chemical Tarragona, were found selling the product as much as 37.7 percent below normal market prices and that such dumping "has hurt domestic producers", according to an announcement on the ministry's website on Tuesday.

The deposits must be paid to Chinese customs according to the dumping margins of the exporters. TDI is widely used in industries from rubber surface-coating, petroleum and automobiles to railway transport.

lijiabao@chinadaily.com.cn