The Hindu Business Line : Dumping duty mooted on slabstock polyol imports

THE Designated Authority in the Commerce Ministry has recommended imposition of definitive anti-dumping duty on imported flexible slabstock polyol of molecular weight 3000 to 4000, used to produce flexible slabstock foam, from China, South Korea, Taiwan and Brazil.

In its final findings, the authority said that in response to a petition filed by Manali Petrochemicals Ltd, Chennai, the sole producer of the subject goods, the authority found that flexible slabstock polyol of molecular weight 3000 to 4000 has been exported to India from the subject countries below the normal volume.

The domestic industry has suffered material injury, which has been caused cumulatively by the dumped imports from subject countries. Hence the authority has recommended definitive anti-dumping duty on these imports from the subject countries.

In the case of China, South Korea, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) and Brazil, the recommended dumping duty is the difference between $1472.77 and the landed value of imports of the subject goods from these countries into India.

Divulging details of its probe, the authority said the imports from the subject countries increased from 64 tonnes in 2000-01 to 1,111 tonnes in 2001-02 and to 3,973 tonnes during the period of investigation.

There was an increase of imports from subject countries from 1.93 per cent in 2000-01 to 97.05 per cent as a share of total imports during the period of probe. The share of imports of subject goods from these countries has escalated from 0.61 during 2000-01 to 36.18 per cent during the period of probe.

There is thus an increase in the dumped imports from subject countries in relation to the demand of the product in the country. The share of domestic industry in total demand has gone down from 68.3 per cent in 2000-01 to 62.73 per cent during the period of investigation.

There was an argument to the effect that the demand of subject goods is growing at the rate of 15 per cent per annum and the domestic producer has a capacity to produce 11,250 tonnes. In such a situation, increase in imports is unavoidable.

It has also been argued that the petitioner (Manali Petrochemicals Ltd) has inefficient production process, uneconomic plant size and availability of raw material with the petitioner repeatedly seeking protection through safeguard and anti-dumping measures.

Responding to this charge, the Authority notes that the technology adopted by the domestic industry for the manufacture of flexible slabstock polyol is comparable with that adopted by the exporters.

Stating that any claim of perceived efficiency of cost of production of any exporter should normally get reflected in its selling prices and eventually in the computation of dumping margin, the authority maintained that none of the exporters from Brazil, China and Taiwan has given the information concerning the cost of production.

Hence it contends that the material injury to the domestic industry has been caused due to the dumped imports from the subject countries.