With an aim to provide relief to domestic players, the Indian government has imposed anti-dumping duty on bottle-grade PET (polyethylene terephthalate) resin coming from China. While the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) had concluded the investigation on the anti-dumping case in December 2020, the finance ministry recently accepted and notified the recommendations.
PET resin ranging from $60.92 to $200.66, which is usually used for bottles, jars, containers and packaging applications, will face anti-dumping duty based on the quality.
This duty was imposed more than a year after IVL Dhunseri Petrochem Industries Pvt. Ltd and Reliance Industries Ltd, the two largest producers of the product in India filed an application before the DGTR, which prompted the anti-dumping investigation in October 2019, stated Livemint. The company argued the volume of imports from China has increased but from other countries has declined.
It was found that during the period of investigation there was a dramatic increase in imports due to significant dumping which impacted profits. To which importers of the material argued the imports had no price effect on the domestic industry as the domestic prices increased by 26 per cent over the injury period while the import prices increased by 33 per cent and thus, analysis of price undercutting is meaningless. "The production, capacity utilisation and sales of the domestic industry have increased significantly over the injury period and the domestic industry was able to over utilize its capacity to 110 per cent."
Both the companies stated imposing the anti-dumping duty is in the public interest as it will increase the cost of the eventual end product by only 0.001 per cent to 0.34 per cent and will protect the domestic industry from dumping.
Meanwhile, importers of the material submitted the increase in selling price as well as the import prices itself imply that there is no suppressing or depressing effect on domestic prices and therefore, there can be no likelihood of the same in the future.
