China is reconsidering the necessity of imposing anti-dumping duty on a Russian caprolactam supplier, the Ministry of Commerce announced on Monday.

Kemerovo Joint Stock Company "AZOT", a major chemical plant in west Siberia, filed in July an application to the ministry for a re-examination of the anti-dumping duty on its caprolactam, a white crystalline cyclic amide used in the production of nylon, the ministry said.

The company claimed that it had reduced dumping to China, and the primary evidence it offered complied with China's relevant regulations and rules; its application was accepted and the re-examination work started on Monday, the ministry said.

China started to impose anti-dumping duties on the imports of caprolactam from companies in Japan, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Russia from June of 2003, as an earlier investigation found that dumping by these companies had done substantial damage to the domestic industry.

The Ministry of Commerce decided that exports from these caprolactam suppliers to China are subject to anti-dumping duties for five years, with the tax rate ranging from 5 to 28 percent. The rate on Kemerovo Joint Stock Company is 9 percent.