Friday, May 23, 2014:The government’s probe saying US and Asian suppliers dumped products in the local market has been challenged by First Solar Inc. It has joined an Indian trade group for project developers at a Delhi High Court hearing on Wednesday.
The information was reported by the Bloomberg BusinessWeek, quoting Sujoy Ghosh, chief of First Solar and Vineet Mittal, managing director of Welspun Energy Limited. Welspun is the largest solar developer in India and one of its major importers.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry rejected the data that was submitted by overseas competitors of Indian photovoltaic producers. According to the Bloomberg report, the company has also said that the ministry failed to consider evidence showing that the domestic producers don’t possess the required amount of local domestic production capacity to legally warrant a probe, said the group.
The ministry’s investigation started back in 2012 when three companies (Websol Energy System Limited, Indosolar Limited and Jupiter Solar Power Limited) alleged that the US, Malaysian, Chinese and Taiwanese solar companies sold their products in India below cost, which is a practice that is known as dumping. Further, Bloomberg reported that while H.R. Gupta, managing director of Indosolar wrote in an email that he wasn’t privy to the case, the other domestic makers did not respond to queries.
