Govt starts probe into circuit board dumping by China, Hong Kong

The commerce department has initiated investigation into dumping allegations on imports of certain printed circuit boards (PCBs) originating from China and Hong Kong. The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), part of the Commerce and Industry Ministry, in a notification on Tuesday said the Indian Printed Circuit Association (IPCA) had alleged material injury to the domestic PCB industry owing to the dumping of these electronic goods and sought the imposition of anti-dumping duty on such imports from the two jurisdictions.

“The applicant association (IPCA) has claimed that there is no known difference in the subject goods (PCBs) produced by the domestic industry and the subject goods imported from the subject countries. The Authority notes that the two products are technically and commercially substitutable. The consumers have used and are using the two products interchangeably,” the DGTR said.

“Therefore, for the purpose of the present investigation, the subject goods produced by the domestic industry are being treated as ‘like article’ to the subject goods imported from the subject countries,” the DGTR added.

PCBs or mother boards are mainly used to provide electrical connection and mechanical support to the electrical components of a circuit.

Populated or stuffed PCBs are used in all kinds of electronic circuits -- from simple transistor amplifiers to the biggest supercomputers.

A PCB is manufactured and sold as single-side, double-side or multiple layers. The scope of the product under consideration in the present investigation is limited up to six-layer PCBs.

PCBs with more than six layers, usually used in mobile phones as well as populated PCBs of all sizes, have been excluded from the investigation.

India imported PCBs worth $478 million from China and Hong Kong during the April-October period, constituting 55 per cent of the total.

The IPCA has said there are over 200 manufacturers of PCBs in India, most of which are micro, small, and medium enterprises, and fragmented across the country.

 

K S Babu, secretary, IPCA, said dumping from China and Hong Kong had been going on for more than four years.

“We have somehow managed it so far but now our existence depends on anti-dumping duty. If it continues like this, there will be no PCB industry in India in a few years. We are not able to use our optimum capacity as China and Hong Kong have been running the show. Unless we utilise our full capacity, we will not be able to survive in the market,” he added.

Yogesh Gupta, managing partner at Comercinate Advisor LLP, a firm specialising in indirect taxes, said anti-dumping duty would protect Indian PCB manufacturers who had been trying to scale up in recent years.

“It will also encourage R&D in electronic component manufacturing,” he added.

After a detailed investigation, the DGTR recommends to the Department of Revenue in the finance ministry whether or not to impose anti-dumping on a product. However, the finance ministry has the final authority to either accept or reject the recommendations of the DGTR.