China will collect antidumping duties on imports of M-dihydroxybenzene from the U.S. and Japan, the country announced March 22. China’s Ministry of Commerce said after an investigation -- which began in March 2012 -- it determined that dumping exists in imports of the chemical from Japan and the U.S., and “such dumping has caused material injury to China’s domestic injury.” The duties became effective March 23 and will remain effective for five years, the announcement said.

The Export-Import Bank authorized more than $190 million to finance the export of Boeing 737-900ER aircraft to El Al Israel Airlines, the bank announced March 22. Boeing said the transaction will help create more than 1,300 U.S. jobs. El Al is the national flag carrier of Israel and has a “long and productive history” of working with Ex-Im, dating to 1960, said Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg in a press release.

Demand for Liquefied Natural Gas will increase over the next decade and U.S. LNG exporters could upset the traditional LNG pricing structure, said a new report from assurance, tax, transaction and advisory company Ernst & Young. The report, released March 19, said that a massive amount of new LNG capacity is proposed -- enough to double current capacity by 2025 -- and anticipates a growing role for more “price-sensitive buyers” less willing to pay supply security premiums. Proposed North American LNG export projects are “particularly well-positioned” for low pricing, the report said, because source gas in U.S. and Western Canada is priced on a spot basis, unlike gas elsewhere in the world. This could upset traditional pricing structure, as substantial volumes of low-cost LNG moves into Asian markets, the report said. Industry associations have pushed the Department of Energy to expand LNG exports to non free-trade agreement countries (see 13022602). So far, only one U.S. company has received a license to export LNG, and about 20 others are waiting for approval from the Department of Energy (see 13032013).

Trunkline LNG Export Company applied for a long-term contract to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) from a terminal in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The company is asking for a 25-year contract from the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy, to export up to 15 million metric tons of natural gas per year. The application was announced the same day as a House subcommittee hearing on the Department’s strategy for exporting LNG. “As a nation, we have already decided exporting is consistent with our public interest, and we will continue to export natural gas by pipeline and LNG to [free trade agreement] and Non-FTA countries,” said Rep. James Lankford, R-Okla., Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Health Care, and Entitlements, in his opening statement (here).

Boeing has applied for more than $100 million in financial assistance from the Export-Import Bank, to export Boeing 777 aircraft to Air China, which will use the planes to provide long-haul air service between China and international destinations. Comments on this application can be submitted through www.regulations.gov and are due April 14.

The Export-Import Bank of the U.S. received two applications for more than $100 million in financial aid -- for the export of Boeing 777 aircraft to Kuwait (here) and the export of General Electric turbines to the United Arab Emirates (here). The turbines will be used to expand a power plant, which will in turn support an expansion of an aluminum smelter in United Arab Emirates, according to the Federal Register notice on the application. Comments on both applications, each one asking for more than $100 million, can be submitted through www.regulations.gov and are due April 12.

Strong trade deals with high standards -- on topics like labor and the environment -- combined with streamlined regulations are crucial to ensuring U.S. exports continue to grow, President Obama told members of the President’s Export Council at their March 12 meeting. The President said his administration was “modestly optimistic” an EU-U.S. trade deal will be successful, because austerity measures across Europe have made the continent realize it needs an “aggressive trade component. They are hungrier for a deal than they have been in the past.” Obama said there are areas where the U.S. and EU can narrow differences on customs and regulations, but the deal will still be a “heavy slog.”

The Export-Import Bank received an application for a loan or financial guarantee in excess of $100 million to support exporting Boeing 777 aircraft to Philippine Airlines, said a Federal Register notice. The planes will be used for long-haul passenger air service between the Philippines and destinations in Asia, Canada and elsewhere, the notice said. Comments on the application can be submitted through www.regulations.gov, and are due by April 7.

A group of industry associations is pushing the White House to move swiftly on nominations for the Export-Import Bank’s Board of Directors. “Failure to act quickly on nominations for the pending Board vacancies would threaten those hundreds of thousands of American jobs that depend directly or indirectly on Ex-Im Bank's export financing,” said a letter, sent March 8 to President Obama and signed by 13 associations, including the Chamber of Commerce, National Foreign Trade Council and the National Association of Manufacturers. “Reliable access to export financing is a vital part of being globally competitive, and export financing has taken on renewed importance in today's unsettled financial environment.”

A Russian company has been added to the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Entity List according to a Federal Register notice to be published March 8. The notice said T--Platforms has been listed as the consignee on multiple automated export systems records filed for the export of dual-use items controlled for national security reasons but shipped without the required licenses. The company may also be associated with military procurement activities, including computer system development for military end-users and the production of computers for nuclear research, the notice said. T --Platforms’s headquarters in Russia and its subsidiaries in Germany and Taiwan have all been added to the Entity List. T-Platforms information on the list is as follows: