Friday, July 05, 2013: With the domestic manufacturing industry for solar cells requesting their grievances, the Indian Government may as well bring in an anti-dumping bill effective to the major solar goods suppliers of various countries. According to the local manufacturers, countries like US, Malaysia, Taiwan and China were exporting solar goods at par low price and this was “bleeding” the domestic sector. A representative of the commerce ministry said that this was quite a complex case at hand with more than 100 companies stating their grievances.
On July 18, a special hearing has been scheduled such that the matter could be taken forward. Domestic manufacturing facilities including that of Moser Baer have shut down their facilities owing to cheap imports from these countries. There are several other domestic units like Indosolar and Lanco that have idled capacities above 50 per cent.
The justification pleaded by the domestic firms has sufficient prima facie and the evidence point out the necessity to launch an anti-dumping investigation. According to Mr. HR Gupta, the managing director of Indosolar Ltd, overproduction in countries like China has led to their dumping in nations like India and below the domestic cost of production. The domestic industries also rue the fact that there hasn’t been any interim duty placed on these imports while the investigation is on and this has led to subsequent dissemination of the local players. US itself in fact posed a 31 per cent antidumping duty for Chinese products and the rate were as high as 250 per cent for some other exporters.
