Under the aegis of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has recommended the imposition of anti-dumping duty on aluminum and zinc coated flat products from China PR, Vietnam, and Korea RP to protect the domestic industry. In solar projects, the panels are placed on the module mounting structures, which are made up of aluminum and zinc-coated flat products.

In July 2019, Mercom reported that the Directorate General of Trade Remedies imposed a provisional duty on the imports of aluminum and zinc-coated flat products originating in or exported from China PR, Vietnam, and Korea RP. After examining the submissions made by the parties, DGTR found that there is a significant increase in the imports of subject goods from concerned countries in absolute terms as well as in relation to the production and consumption in India.

The latest government notification states that the purpose of anti-dumping duties is to eliminate the material injury caused to the domestic industry by unfair trade practices of dumping from foreign markets. The duty has been recommended to be in the range of $14.3 to $173.1 (~₹1,032.45 to ₹12,497.6)/ton.

According to the notification, “The Authority recognizes that the imposition of anti-dumping duties might affect the price levels of the product in India. However, fair competition in the Indian market will not be reduced by anti-dumping measures. On the contrary, the imposition of anti-dumping measures would remove the unfair advantages gained by dumping practices, prevent the decline of the domestic industry and help maintain the availability of wider choice to the consumers of subject goods.”

The DGTR recommended the imposition of anti-dumping equal to the “lesser duty rule,” which refers to the cases where the injury caused by dumped or subsidized imports could be removed by the imposition of a duty lesser than the calculated dumping margin or the amount of subsidy.

Under a lesser duty rule, authorities impose duties at a level lower than the margin of dumping if this level is adequate to remove the injury.

The duty is recommended to be levied from the date of imposition of provisional anti-dumping duties on all imports of goods mentioned in the notification from countries such as China PR, Vietnam, and Korea.

Background

JSW Steel Coated Products Limited, the domestic industry, had applied to the DGTR, for the imposition of anti-dumping duty on imports of aluminum and zinc-coated flat products originating in or exported from China, Vietnam, and Korea.

The authority issued a public notice on April 2, 2019, initiating for an investigation to determine the existence, degree, and effect of the alleged dumping of the products, and to recommend the amount of anti-dumping duty, which if levied, would be adequate to remove the “alleged” injury to the domestic industry.

In July 2019, the DGTR issued its preliminary findings wherein it recommended the imposition of provisional anti-dumping duty on the imports of such products originating in or exported from China, Vietnam, and Korea.

At the stage of initiation, the product under consideration was defined as:

Flat-rolled product of steel, plated or coated with an alloy of Aluminium and Zinc. This alloy of Aluminium and Zinc may contain one or more additional elements which, in individual or combination, shall not exceed 3% by weight.

The product under consideration may be in coil form or not in coil form whether or not plain, corrugated, or in profiled form. PUC may be skin-passed / processed on temper-mill or non-skin-passed whether or not surface treated with or without additional non-metallic coating. PUC may be supplied in various trade names including but not limited to Alu-Zinc, Al-Zn, Zinc Aluminum, Aluminum Zinc, Zincalume, Galvalume, etc. PUC offers resistance to corrosion and is used in many applications and sectors including but not limited to infrastructure projects, solar power projects, roofing, walling decking, cladding and framing, white goods and appliances, furniture, and substrate for color coated steel.

According to DGTR, there are three other producers of the products under consideration in  India; Tata BlueScopeSteel Private Limited, Tata Steel BSL Limited, and Asian Colour Coated Ispat Limited.

In April 2019, it was reported that the government of India notified the imposition of anti-dumping duty on the ‘Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA)’ sheets fro solar modules from China PR, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, and Thailand for five years.