BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission has begun investigating a complaint that India has been flooding the EU market with cast iron tubes and pipes at below market cost, following a complaint by French building materials supplier Saint-Gobain.
In an official notice, the Commission, the EU executive, said it had received a complaint in November that Indian tubes and pipes of "ductile cast iron" were being dumped in the EU and damaging the competitiveness of the European industry.
The complaint was brought by Saint-Gobain units in Britain, Germany and Spain on behalf of producers representing more than three-quarters of the total EU production of these tubes and pipes, the Commission said.
Under EU rules, the Commission could propose provisional steps within nine months and definitive punitive measures within 15 months of official publication.
The European Foundry Association (CAEF), which represents the cast iron industry, was not immediately available to comment.
Cast iron is a separate product to steel and serves a different market. It is iron mixed with carbon that has been heated and then poured into a mould to solidify.
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Saint-Gobain, Europe's biggest supplier of building materials, has suffered from depressed construction and car markets this year, and has been betting on cost savings, innovation and a recovery in the U.S. to improve profits.
(Reporting by Barbara Lewis and Maytaal Angel; Editing by Kevin Liffey)