EU anti-dumping duties on BDO: the numbers
On 24 June 2026 the European Commission made definitive the anti-dumping duties on imports of 1,4-butanediol (BDO) originating in China, Saudi Arabia and the United States, through Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1373, in force since 25 June 2026. The definitive rates range from 52.4% to 142.5% depending on the country of origin and the exporting producer, and the measures run for five years.
This is not an isolated measure. Since 5 May 2026, under Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/913, adipic acid originating in China has also carried definitive anti-dumping duties, with rates between 29.1% and 42.3%.
For the thermoplastic elastomer industry these two figures are not customs news: they are cost news. BDO is a key raw material for TPU and, according to market estimates, accounts for 25% to 30% of the raw-material cost of a polyester TPU. Adipic acid is the other component of the polyol in polyester TPU. In other words, the duties do not hit some peripheral product: they hit two building blocks of the formulation.
From here follow three points we believe are useful to anyone in Europe who buys, processes or specifies TPU.
1. Virgin material restarts from a different price, and for five years
There are four BDO producers in Europe, across Germany, the Netherlands and Italy. The point is not that Europe wasn’t producing: it was producing below capacity, because at import prices running the plants made no economic sense.
Now production restarts. BASF is increasing output at Ludwigshafen; INEOS told the Commission, during the investigation, that it expects to restart in the second quarter of 2026, targeting an operating rate between 70% and 90% of capacity.
But a plant coming back online does not bring prices back to where they were: that capacity returns to the market at a European cost, not at an import cost.
Recycled material is the same polymer, and the BDO is in there. But its price isn’t formed on BDO: it’s formed on the scrap market. Two different mechanisms — and since June they have gone two different ways.
What this means in practice: if you compared recycled and virgin over the last two years, you ran that calculation against a virgin price that no longer exists. It is worth running it again with today’s numbers.
2. The duty hits the monomer, not the polymer
This is the least discussed aspect and, in our view, the most relevant.
What is under duty is BDO, not TPU. Those polymerising in Europe pay more for the raw material; those importing finished pellets from Asia meet no equivalent duty on the polymer.
This was not an oversight discovered after the fact. European converters raised exactly this point with the Commission during the investigation — higher input costs upstream and weaker competitiveness downstream, including on export markets — and the Commission proceeded regardless, treating the protection of the European BDO industry as the overriding interest.
Recycled material sits outside this asymmetry and stays a European material: it comes from scrap generated in Europe, it is processed in Europe, and it does not cross a customs border under duty.
What this means in practice: it is a lever on cost that does not force you to look for the answer in Asia. Anyone producing in Europe today does not have many levers of that kind available.
3. The material is there. Knowing how to handle it is the point
Here the uncomfortable part has to be said too, because it is what separates an analysis from a sales promise.
Scrap isn’t scarce. Producers are full of it, warehouses are loaded, prices are low and stable. Anyone picturing a rush on secondary raw material hasn’t walked a yard in recent months. Recycled material has no duties and no queues.
So the advantage isn’t finding it. It’s knowing which stream it comes from, how it behaves in processing, and how to hold consistency from one batch to the next.
The challenge: taking a waste product and making it a product of excellence. That is exactly the work that sits between available material and material you can actually run in production.
What this means in practice: whoever opens the technical file now will have a qualified source when they need one. Whoever opens it when they need it, finds it a year later.
The GIANECO perspective
At GIANECO we handle recycled thermoplastic elastomers — TPU, EVA, TPO — and compounds, with ISO 9001 and CSI certifications (Plastica Seconda Vita / Plastic Byproduct).
And precisely for that reason we don’t present it as a universal drop-in: there are applications where recycled material does not reach the required result, and batch-to-batch consistency and research are daily work, not a starting condition. It takes qualification, experience and dedication.
What the duties on BDO and adipic acid change is not the technical case for recycled material: they change the economic benchmark against which that technical case is assessed. A comparison that two years ago could be closed in five minutes now deserves to be run again, with the numbers in front of you, application by application.
The question we are putting to our contacts is a simple one: are you already reviewing your supplier base, or waiting to see how this settles?
If you want to check which of your part numbers can be addressed with recycled TPU, EVA or TPO — and which cannot — get in touch: we start from your technical data sheet, not from our price list.
Sources: European Commission, DG Trade — Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1373 (BDO, in force 25 June 2026); Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/913 (adipic acid, 4 May 2026). The share of BDO in the raw-material cost of a polyester TPU is based on market estimates.
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