UPDATE 2-U.S. sets duties on hardwood plywood from China

(Adds comments from opponents of duties)

WASHINGTON, April 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department set preliminary anti-dumping duties on Tuesday ranging up to 63.96 percent on hundreds of millions of dollars of plywood from China it said were being sold at unfairly low prices.

The move angered a group of importers who said the duties would increase the cost of kitchen and bath cabinetry and other products such as furniture, flooring and boats made in the United States with the Chinese plywood.

The United States imported about $748 million of the hardwood and decorative plywood from China in 2012.

The Commerce Department said it set a preliminary duty of 22.14 percent on plywood made or exported by 101 Chinese companies and a preliminary rate of 63.96 percent on all other Chinese producers and exporters except for two companies, Linyi San Fortune Wood Co Ltd and Jiangyang Group.

Those two firms were undercutting U.S. prices by less than 2 percent, which was not enough to warrant duties, it said.

The Coalition for Fair Trade of Hardwood Plywood, which represents producers in North Carolina, New York and Oregon, had accused their Chinese competitors of selling in the United States at prices 298 percent to 322 percent below fair value.

U.S. importers and manufacturers opposed to the duties said the Chinese plywood fills a niche in the U.S. market that domestic producers are unable to supply.

"The irony is that the unfair tariffs instigated from this protectionist campaign will harm the U.S. market, and the only free trade we will see is the export of U.S. jobs to China," Greg Wilkinson, co-chair of the American Alliance of Hardwood Plywood, said in a statement.

The department has already announced separate preliminary countervailing duties of up 27 percent on the plywood to offset alleged Chinese government subsidies. A final decision on both type of duties is expected in July.

Washington has also imposed duties on wooden bedroom furniture and hardwood flooring from China in recent years. (Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Sandra Maler and Philip Barbara)

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