MUMBAI: India has launched an investigation into chemical firms from Taiwan and three other economies, accusing them of dumping a commonly used type of chemical at unfairly low prices into the Indian market, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).
The MOEA said India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry kicked off a probe on April 4 into epoxy resin suppliers from Taiwan, the European Union, South Korea and Thailand for the alleged dumping practices, to see whether the Indian counterparts have felt the pinch from the four economies’ low-priced imports.
Epoxy resin is used in a wide range of applications, including paints, floor coatings, food and beverage packaging, adhesives, and polyvinyl chloride production.
The investigation eyes the imports during the period between Oct. 1, 2016 and Sept. 30, 2017, the MOEA said.
In 2017, Taiwan’s epoxy resin exports to India totaled US$10.41 million, accounting for 10.37 percent of India’s total imports, MOEA said, citing data compiled by India’s Customs agency.
Taiwan was the third largest epoxy resin supplier to India, trailing South Korea (26.73 percent) and Thailand (17.87 percent), but leading China (9.42 percent) and Japan (8.80 percent), the data indicated.
The MOEA said epoxy resin demand in the Asia Pacific region has been on the rise since 2016 with the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in sales in the global market hitting 5 percent.
According to data compiled by Taiwan’s Customs, the island’s epoxy resin exports totaled US$464 million in 2016, with India accounting for about 1.77 percent of the total.
In 2017, Taiwan’s epoxy resin exports grew to US$565 million, with India making up 1.43 percent of the total, the local data showed.
Taiwan’s Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT), under the MOEA, said that it has informed local business associations that have members exporting epoxy resin of the investigation, urging them to actively respond to the probe to protect exporters’ interest.
