Repost: Lithuanian company accused of price dumping
Jul 11, 2024
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Written by Jurgita Šimelevičienė, Business Current Affairs Editor.
The United Kingdom's Trade Enforcement Authority opened an investigation into the anti-dumping case at the end of June. The British are investigating whether motor oils and lubricants imported from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Lithuania are sold at fair prices in the UK market. The name of the company "SCT Lubricants", which operates in Lithuania, also figures in the study.
The Remedies Authority was approached by Aztec Oils, a UK lubricants manufacturer, following an anti-dumping application. The company, Aztec Oils, claims that since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it has noticed an increasing volume of lubricants coming from the UAE and Lithuania, which are sold at significantly lower prices than the cost of production and imports.
See also Grease stains: leaked data from Luminor casts a shadow on Klaipeda company.
Aztec Oils has also named specific companies that have flooded the UK market with cheap products – SCT, Mannol and others. "SCT Lubricants" is an oil factory operating in Klaipeda, the final owner of which is German citizen Juri Sudheimer. The companies he manages also own the Mannol brand – the production of Mannol products was moved to Lithuania more than a decade ago.
The 15min portal contacted Dimitry Ignatov, the head of SCT Lubricants, asking for comment on the anti-dumping case opened in the United Kingdom, but the manager said he could not speak at the moment and referred to lawyer Raimondas Kivyliai. The lawyer confirmed to 15min that the investigation has been launched and SCT Lubricants intends to participate in it. "The company's position is that it is not dumping product and will try to defend its position by providing documents, explanations and arguments. Those circumstances will be investigated and clarified," R.Kivylius commented. According to him, SCT Lubricants has been exporting to the UK market since 2019 and sales are steadily increasing. When asked why the company's products, according to the British company, are significantly cheaper, R. Kivylius explained that there can be various reasons. "It is possible that production uses modern technologies, invests in production and there is an opportunity to probably produce products at a cheaper cost," the lawyer considered.
Meanwhile, when asked why Aztec Oils points out that cheap products flooded the UK market precisely after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the lawyer said it wasn't for him: "As I said, the company has been selling its products since 2019. I don't see any connections to the war that has begun in Ukraine."
British lubricant manufacturers provide after losing millions.
The British company, which raised the issue of anti-dumping, said the actions of companies importing cheap lubricants had put enormous strain on UK lubricant manufacturers.
Mark Lord, CEO of Aztec Oils, quoted in a press release, said that due to the arrival of products that sell well below the cost of importing them and manufacturing lubricants produced in the UK, UK lubricant manufacturers have lost up to £100 million in the past year (118 million euros) of revenue.
"This unethical practice has had serious consequences for the UK lubricants industry, as many companies have been forced to substantially rationalise operations and reduce the number of employees," he said.
Operations with offshore companies.
The name of the company SCT Lubricants has already sounded in journalistic investigations in the past.
In 2022, Siena reported potentially suspicious transactions in SCT Lubricants bank accounts.
An international team of journalists received the anti-money laundering audit data of Luminor Bank (this group was previously merged by DNB and Nordea). They show over the decade from 2008-2018 suspicious operations were carried out at the DNB and Nordea branches in the Baltic States for €3.9 billion. Leaked data shows that the auditors were most concerned by several customers including SCT Lubricants.
The ultimate owner of the Klaipeda company, Juri Sudheimer, a few years ago, became notorious in the controversial story- in the corruption case of the Russian opposition leader Nikita Belych. It was the money handed over by J.Sudheimer that became the basis for the imprisonment of N. Belych.
As Siena wrote, the leaked data shows that the company SCT Lubricants, which manufactures and exports lubricants in Klaipeda, carried out many operations with offshore companies, for many of them the auditors did not find sufficient justification. Operations include financial links with companies notorious for money laundering scandals.
SCT Lubricants said it did not commit any wrongdoings and denied some of the leaked data altogether.
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