The Hindu Business Line : Dumping probe on bias tyres initiated

THE Designated Authority in the Commerce Ministry has initiated an anti-dumping investigation into the import of bias tyres for bus and lorries/trucks from China and Thailand.

The products under probe are new/unused pneumatic diagonal ply or cross ply non-radial bias tyres, tubes and flaps of rubber used in buses and lorries (including trucks) originating in or exported from China and Thailand. A tyre set generally comprises a tyre, a tube and a flap, which jointly render the role of tyre. In market parlance, the term TTF (Tyre + Tube +Flap) refers to the tyre set.

The authority said that it received a written application from the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA) on behalf of the domestic industry using the information purveyed by domestic manufacturers such as Apollo Tyres Ltd and Ceat Ltd, supported by JK Tyres (JK Industries Ltd), Birla Tyres (Kesoram Industries Ltd) and MRF Ltd. Applicant companies backed by supporting companies constitute more than 50 per cent of the Indian production of the subject product. The applicant has claimed that China should be treated as a non-market economy and proposed Sri Lanka as an appropriate third country market economy in terms of Para 7 of annexure I of the Anti-Dumping Rules. Accordingly, the normal value has been worked out on the basis of the price in Sri Lanka duly adjusted for selling and distribution overheads as an appropriate estimate of the normal value in China to determine the level of dumping.

The authority said the applicant has furnished details on various parameters pertaining to injury to the indigenous industry. These broad parameters cover the decline in market share, stagnant sales and the spurt in volume of imports, both in absolute terms and in relation to the demand of the product, significant price undercutting, price under-selling, price depression and increase in inventories. These factors cumulatively show that the domestic industry has suffered material injury on account of dumping from the subject countries.

Hence, the authority has proposed to initiate anti-dumping investigations into the existence, degree and effect of alleged dumping of the subject goods originating in or exported from the subject country and the period of investigation is from April 1, 2004 to June 30, 2005 (15 months). However, the injury investigation period will cover the span of 2001-02 to 2003-04 and the period of investigation.