An update on the Anti-dumping investigation concerning imports of Digital Offset Printing Plates originating in or exported from China PR, Japan, Korea RP, Taiwan and Vietnam.
In the wake of the proceedings initiated by Ministry of Finance, Govt of India on the appeal of TechNova Imaging, the sole manufacturer of digital and analogue aluminium plates in India, with over 70 percent market share, a provisional anti-dumping duty had been announced in 2012. With this additional duty, all printers using digital plates coming from China and Japan had to shell out extra money in the range of 25-40 percent depending on violet, thermal or CtcP plates. This resulted into further increase in the cost of jobs, printed by using those digital plates.
It is now established that alleged dumping has caused material injury to the domestic manufacturer and the DGTR has recommended imposition of anti-dumping duty on the imports.
The Department of Commerce (Directorate General of Trade Remedies, DGTR) has released the Preliminary Findings in the Anti-dumping investigation concerning imports of “Digital Offset Printing Plates” originating in or exported from China PR, Japan, Korea RP, Taiwan and Vietnam, dated October 3, 2019.
According to it, the Authority provisionally concludes as under:
- Imports of the subject goods from the subject countries have increased in absolute terms over the entire period of investigation.
- The landed price of imports from the subject countries have been declining significantly over the injury period and through the POI (A).
- Imports of the subject goods have increased relative to production and consumption in India.
- There is price suppression and depression due to low priced dumped imports coming in to India.
- Market share of the Domestic Industry has decreased from 2015-16 to POI even though demand for the subject goods has risen during the same period. This is due to the reason that imports have aggressively captured the increase in demand.
- The Domestic Industry’s profitability, cash profits and return on capital employed has been drastically affected.
- The price undercutting and price underselling from the subject countries during the POI is positive and quite significant.
The notice further states that, After examining the submissions made by the interested parties and issues raised therein; and considering the facts available on record, the Authority provisionally concludes that:
- There is substantial increase in imports of subject goods from subject counties in absolute terms as well as in relation to production & consumption in India during the POI (A) as compared to the previous years.
- The product under consideration has been exported to India from the subject countries below their normal values.
- The Domestic Industry has suffered material injury.
- Material injury has been caused by the dumped imports of subject goods from subject countries.
The Authority notes that the investigation was initiated and notified to all interested parties and adequate opportunity was given to the Domestic Industry, exporters, importers and other interested parties to provide positive information on the aspect of dumping, injury and causal link. Having initiated and conducted the investigation into dumping, injury and causal link in terms of the provisions laid down under the Anti-Dumping Rules, the authority is of the view that imposition of provisional duty is required to offset dumping and injury, pending completion of the investigation. Therefore, Authority considers it necessary and recommends imposition of provisional anti-dumping duty on imports of subject goods from the subject countries.
Having regard to the lesser duty rule followed by the Authority, the Authority recommends imposition of provisional anti-dumping duty equal to the lesser of margin of dumping and the margin of injury, so as to remove the injury to the Domestic Industry. Accordingly, the Authority recommends imposition of provisional antidumping duty on the imports of subject goods, originating in or exported from subject countries, from the date of notification to be issued in this regard by the Central Government, equal to the amount mentioned in Col. 7 of the duty table appended below. The landed value of imports for this purpose shall be assessable value as determined by the Customs under Customs Act, 1962 and applicable level of custom duties except duties levied under Section 3, 3A, 8B, 9, 9A of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975.
The Authority now invites comments on these provisional findings from all the interested parties and the same, considered relevant by the Authority, would be considered in the final finding. Domestic Industry, exporters, importers and other interested parties known to be concerned are being addressed separately by the Authority, who may make their views known, within forty days from the date of the publication of these preliminary findings. The Authority would conduct further verification to the extend deemed necessary. The Authority would disclose the essential facts as per the Anti-dumping Rules before announcing the final findings.
The final verdict is awaited but the printers are protesting against these findings. As per the petition filed by Kerala Masters Printers Association on Change.org, “We are of the considered opinion that TechNova has not suffered any injury because of imports of digital printing plates. The company has admitted having suffered no volume injury (production, domestic sales, market share, capacity utilization etc. have significantly improved over the period). The claim for adverse price effect of imports made by TechNova is primarily based on their claims with regard to deterioration in its profits in digital printing plates and consequently returns on investment. It would be seen that with significant improvement in production of digital plates, profitability of the company improved significantly. We, however, believe that the losses claimed by TechNova are factually incorrect. We strongly consider that TechNova’s performance has steeply improved over the period and there is no justification in imposition of anti-dumping duty.”