The office of Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) has extended the deadline for the stakeholders to submit responses in the ongoing solar glass import case from Malaysia. The final date for Malaysian solar glass exporters to submit their responses to DGAD questionnaires has now been extended to April 10, 2018.

The DGAD’s office extended the submission timeline after the interested parties requested more time to comply, but warned there will be no further extensions.

In February 2018, Mercom reported that Malaysia had landed on DGAD’s radar for its exports of textured tempered glass (solar glass), whether coated or uncoated, to India.

Malaysia landed on DGAD’s radar after Indian solar glass producer Gujarat Borosil filed a petition requesting the imposition of an anti-dumping duty. Gujarat Borosil claimed that the dumping of cheap products from Malaysia was causing material injury to its business, which it says is the only solar glass producing business in India.

In response to the petition, DGAD has initiated an investigation into Malaysian solar glass imports that applies to components with a minimum transmission of 90.5 percent, a thickness that does not exceed 4.2 mm (including a tolerance of 0.2 mm), and at least one dimension that exceeds 1,500 mm, whether coated or uncoated.

In its response to the petition, DGAD agreed that there was enough evidence to support Gujarat Borosil’s claim that solar glass was being dumped in the Indian market from Malaysia, potentially causing material injury to Indian company.

DGAD also agreed that there was evidence of a causal link between the alleged dumping and injury to the petitioner, which led them to initiate the anti-dumping investigation.

The period of investigation covers the 15-month period stretching from October 1, 2016 to December 31, 2017, and the injury investigation covers the data for the previous three years.

According to several Indian solar manufacturers, Borosil is now virtually a monopoly, created by filing anti-dumping cases. Companies are now having to pay a higher price for solar glass and even then, Borosil is unable to fulfill demand.

This is the other side of anti-dumping duties that can be very detrimental to the industry.

The investigation comes on the heels of the August 2017 imposition of an anti-dumping duty on solar glass imported from China that ranges from $64.04 per metric ton (MT) to $136.21/MT. That ruling followed a June 2017 recommendation made by DGAD in response to an earlier petition filed by Gujarat Borosil. The final tariffs imposed by the Ministry of Finance were the same as those recommended by DGAD.

Image credit: AGC Solar