India’s Directorate of Trade Remedies (DTR) has concluded that continuation of antidumping (AD) duties on ductile iron (DI) pipe imports from China is no longer warranted, a senior government official said on Monday, April 22.
The official said that the DTR’s conclusion followed a review of the AD duty on DI pipe imports from China and claims submitted by Indian manufacturers that the duty should be extended as a continued threat existed from such imports from China.
The AD duty on DI pipe imports from China was first levied in 2007 and subsequently extended in 2013 for a further period of five year, while last year the DTR started its review of the import restriction based on demand for another extension from the domestic industry.
The DTR completed the latest review early this month and noted that there are large surplus DI pipe manufacturing capacities in China, but just the existence and creation of capacities overseas could not be taken as conclusive evidence of possible dumping, the official said, quoting from the review report.
The domestic manufacturers who had sought an extension of the AD rate had also failed to provide any evidence that surplus Chinese capacities are being diverted to India, the official said citing the report.
The DTR report also noted that there were negligible imports of DI pipes from China during the period reviewed and no conclusion on dumping could be made from such small import volumes, the review report said.
Indian AD duty on DI pipe imports from China ranged from $127.40 to $139.79/mt depending on different Chinese manufacturers.
The discontinuation of the current AD duty will be effective once the department of revenue under the Ministry of Finance issues a formal notification based on the review report from the DTR, the official added.
