MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
(Department of Commerce)
(DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF TRADE REMEDIES)
NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, 21st August, 2020
PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
(OI CASE No: 30/2019)
Subject: Preliminary Findings in the matter of anti-dumping investigation concerning imports of ‘Soda Ash’ originating in or exported from Turkey and USA.
F. No. 6/39/2019–DGTR.—A. BACKGROUND OF THE CASE
Having regard to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, as amended from time to time (hereinafter also referred to as the Act), and the Customs Tariff (Identification, Assessment and Collection of Anti-Dumping Duty on Dumped Articles and for Determination of Injury) Rules, 1995, as amended from time to time, (hereinafter also referred to as ‘the Rules’ or ‘the AD Rules’) thereof:
Whereas, M/s DCW Ltd., M/s RSPL and M/s GHCL (hereinafter also referred to as ‘the Applicants’ or ‘the Domestic Industry’) have filed an application before the Designated Authority (hereinafter also referred to as ‘the Authority’) in accordance with the Customs Tariff Act and the AD Rules for imposition of Anti-dumping duty on imports of ‘Soda Ash’ (hereinafter also referred to as ‘subject goods’ or ‘product under consideration’ or ‘PUC’) originating in or exported from Turkey and USA (hereinafter also referred to as the ‘subject countries’).
And, whereas, the Authority, on the basis of sufficient evidence submitted by the Applicant, issued a public notice vide Notification No. 6/39/2019 – DGTR dated 22nd January, 2020, published in the Gazette of India, initiating the subject investigation in accordance with the AD Rules to determine existence, degree and effect of the alleged dumping of the subject goods, originating in or exported from the subject countries, and to recommend the amount of anti-dumping duty, which if levied, would be adequate to remove the alleged injury to the Domestic Industry.
B. PROCEDURE
1. The procedure described herein below has been followed by the Authority with regard to the subject investigation:
a) The Authority notified the Embassies of the Subject Countries in India about the receipt of the present anti-dumping application before proceeding to initiate the investigation in accordance with Sub-Rule (5) of Rule 5 supra.
b) The Authority issued a public notice dated 22nd January 2020 published in the Gazette of India Extraordinary, initiating anti-dumping investigation concerning imports of the subject goods from subject countries.
c) The Authority sent a copy of the initiation notification to the Embassies of the subject countries in India, known producers/exporters from the subject countries, known importers/users and the Domestic Industry as well as other domestic producers as per the addresses made available by the Applicant and requested them to make their views known in writing within the prescribed time limit.
d) The Authority provided a copy of the non-confidential version of the application to the known producers/exporters and to the Embassies of the subject countries in India in accordance with Rule 6(3) of the Rules supra.
e) The Embassies of the subject countries in India were also requested to advise the exporters/producers from their countries to respond to the questionnaire within the prescribed time limit. A copy of the letter and questionnaire sent to the producers/exporters was also sent to them along with the names and addresses of the known producers/exporters from the subject countries.
f) The Authority sent questionnaires to the following known producers/exporters in the subject countries in accordance with Rule 6(4) of the AD Rules:
i. M/s FMC Industrial Chemicals
ii. M/s Solvay Soda Ash
iii. M/s General Chemicals Industrial Products
iv. M/s ANSAC
v. M/s FMC Corporation
vi. M/s Ciner Resources LP
vii. M/s Ciner Wyoming LLC
viii. M/s Ciner Resources Corporation
ix. M/s Eti Soda
x. M/s Soda Senayii
xi. M/s Kazan Soda Electric
g) Following exporters have filed questionnaire response from the subject countries:
i. Searles Valley Minerals Inc., USA
ii. M/s Tata Chemicals Soda Ash Partners (“TCSAP”), Producer, USA
iii. M/s Tata Chemicals International Pte. Ltd. (“TCIPL”), USA along with its related importer M/s Tata Chemicals Ltd. (“TCL”)
iv. ETI Soda Uretim Pazarlama Nakliyat Ve Elektrik Uretim Sanayi Ve Ticaret A.S., Turkey
v. Kazan Soda Elektrik Uretim A.S, Turkey
vi. Ciner IC Ve Dis Ticaret A.S. (CIDT), Turkey
vii. Soda Sanayii A.S., Turkey its related exporter Sisecam Dis Ticaret A.S.
h) The Authority sent Importer‘s Questionnaire to the following known importers/users of subject goods in India calling for necessary information in accordance with Rule 6(4) of the Rules:
i. M/s Gujarat Guardian Ltd.
ii. M/s Advance Surfactant India Ltd.
iii. M/s Float Glass India Ltd.
iv. M/s A.R. Stanchem Pvt. Ltd.
v. M/s Alenbic Glass Industries Ltd.
vi. M/s Hind Silicates Pvt. Ltd.
vii. M/s Deepak Nitrite Ltd.
viii. M/s Taurus Chemical (P) Ltd.
ix. M/s Hindustan National Glass & ind. Ltd.
x. M/s Kishoresons Detergents Pvt. Ltd.
xi. M/s Hindustan Unilever Ltd.
xii. M/s J.J. Patel Industries
xiii. M/s Procter & Gamble Hygiene & Healthcare
xiv. M/s Shriram Bharath Chemical & Detergents Pvt. Ltd.
xv. M/s Albright Morarji & Pandit Ltd.
xvi. M/s Modern Glass Industries
xvii. M/s Advatech Industries Pvt. Ltd.
xviii. M/s Adarsh Kanch Udyog (P) Ltd.
xix. U.P. Glass Manufacture Syndicate
xx. M/s Paragati Glass Pvt. Ltd.
xxi. M/s Asahi India Glass Limited
xxii. M/s Gora Malhari Ram Ltd.
xxiii. M/s Fena (P) Ltd.
xxiv. M/s Rohit Surfactants (P) Ltd.
xxv. M/s Shree Unicon Organics P. Ltd.
xxvi. M/s Astral Glass Pvt. Ltd.
xxvii. M/s Pollachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry
xxviii. M/s BDJ Glass Industries Pvt. Ltd.
xxix. M/s Vasunhara Rasayan Ltd.
xxx. M/s Shri Hari Industries
xxxi. M/s Power Soap Ltd.
xxxii. M/s Hindustan National Glass & Industries
xxxiii. M/s Shanti Nath Detergents (P) Ltd.
xxxiv. M/s Jagatjit Industries Ltd.
xxxv. M/s Advance Home & Personal Care
xxxvi. M/s S. Kumar Detergents P. Ltd.
xxxvii. M/s Mauli Exports
i) The Authority also informed the following Associations in India, in accordance with Rule 6(4) of the Rules:
i. Detergent Manufacturers Association
ii. Indian Chemical Merchants & Manufacturers
iii. Bulk Drug Manufacturers Association (India)
iv. Indian Glass Manufacturers‘ Association
v. The Dyes & Chemical Merchants Association
vi. The Federation of All India Dyes & Chemicals Merchants Association
j) The Authority, upon request, granted extension, to file Questionnaire Responses by 20.03.2020.
k) Following imports/users have filed questionnaire responses:
M/s Saint Gobain India Pvt. Limited
M/s Hindustan Unilever Ltd. India
M/s Tata Chemicals Ltd.
l) The Authority made available non-confidential version of the evidence presented/submissions made in the form of a public file kept open for inspection by the interested parties.
m) Request was made to the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S) to provide the transaction-wise details of imports of subject goods for the past three years, and the period of investigation, which was received by the Authority. The Authority has, relied upon the DGCI&S data for computation of the volume of imports and its analysis after due examination of the transactions.
n) The Non-Injurious Price (NIP) has been determined based on the cost of production and cost to make & sell the subject goods in India based on the information furnished by the Domestic Industry on the basis of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and Annexure III to the Anti-Dumping Rules so as to ascertain whether Anti-Dumping duty lower than the dumping margin would be sufficient to remove injury to the Domestic Industry.
o) Verification of the information provided by Applicant Domestic Industry by way of table study, to the extent deemed necessary, was carried out by the Authority. Only such verified information with necessary rectification, wherever applicable, has been relied upon for the purpose of preliminary findings.
p) The Period of Investigation for the purpose of the present investigation is from 1st April, 2019 to 31st December, 2019 (9 Months). The injury investigation period has however, been considered as the period from April 2016 – March 2017, April 2017 – March 2018, April 2017 – March 2018, and the POI.
q) The submissions made by the interested parties during the course of this investigation, to the extent supported with evidence and considered relevant to the present investigation, have been appropriately considered by the Authority, in this preliminary finding.
r) Information provided by the interested parties on confidential basis was examined with regard to sufficiency of the confidentiality claim. On being satisfied, the Authority has accepted the confidentiality claims wherever warranted and such information has been considered as confidential and not disclosed to other interested parties. Wherever possible, parties providing information on confidential basis were directed to provide sufficient non-confidential version of the information filed on confidential basis.
s) Wherever an interested party has refused access to, or has otherwise not provided necessary information during the course of the present investigation, or has significantly impeded the investigation, the Authority has considered such parties as non-cooperative and recorded the preliminary findings on the basis of the facts available.
t) ‗***‘ in this preliminary finding represents information furnished by an interested party on confidential basis and so considered by the Authority under the Rules.
u) The exchange rate adopted by the Authority for the subject investigation is US$1 = ₹71.24.
