India determines ‘injury’ from Chinese FKM imports

New Delhi – The Indian ministry of commerce has determined that the domestic industry has suffered “material injury and material retardation” from the import of fluoroelastomers (FKM) from China.

In a 27 Dec ruling, the directorate general of trade remedies (DGTR) – the ministry's investigation arm – said it had established that dumping was taking place.

The directorate recommended anti-dumping duties ranging from $0.078/kg to $7.31/kg (€0.068/kg to €6.43/kg) on FKM originating from China.

According to the DGTR, the prices of Chinese suppliers have been lower than non-Chinese suppliers, by on average Rs908/kg (€11.4/kg) in period of investigation (POI) only.

The market share of Chinese suppliers has also risen from 32% in 2014-15 to 43% in POI, while the share of non-Chinese supplies fell from 68% to 44%.

“These shifts from non-Chinese sources to Chinese sources [are] clearly driven out of significant price difference between Chinese and non-Chinese suppliers,” said the Indian authority.

The document also cited a recent determination by the US authorities, which found a dumping margin of 84.75% on Chinese FKM suppliers, as further evidence of dumping.

The Indian finance ministry will now take a final decision whether to impose the duties.

DGTR launched its investigations into dumping activities of Chinese FKM importers in August, acting on a complaint by India’s sole FKM supplier Gujarat Fluorochemicals Ltd.