The government has imposed a provisional anti-dumping duty on imports of para hydroxy phenyl glycine base (PHPG base) from the European Union.
The compound is used for production of antibiotics like Amoxycillin and Cefadroxyl. Among the companies who use the imported compound are Ranbaxy, Aurobindo Pharma, Lupin Labs, Kopran, Torrent and Surya Pharmaceuticals.
The amount of the duty imposed will be the difference between $21.81 and the landed value of imports per kilogram. In case of imports from DSM Deretil, a Spanish company, the duty will be the difference between $21.38 and the landed value of imports per kilogram.
The investigation was launched in response to a petition filed by Daurala Organics, a Meerut based company, the only producer of PHPG base in the country. The petitioner had alleged that since it was a new entrant in this field, dumping from the EU was aimed at killing the industry at its very inception.
Imports were coming from Italy and Spain, but since there was no customs boundary in the EU, imposition of anti-dumping duty could not be effective without imposing duty against the EU as a whole, the petitioner had said.
Among the users of the compound, Torrent Pharma responded to the petition stating that the domestic industry had a production capacity of only 300 metric tonne against an estimated demand of 2200-2500 metric tonne per year.
Also, the quality of indigenous material did not meet their specifications. Also Daurala Organics was the only producer of this product and dumping duty on PHPG base would make it a monopoly business for them, it said.
However, the designate authority found an increase of 562.5 per cent in volume of imports from the EU and a fall in the average price of exports from the subject countries. In addition, the monthly average sales realisation during the period of investigation declined, mainly due to decrease in the average import price. It therefore decided to impose a provisional anti-dumping duty.
Prior to this, the domestic industry was suffering from dumping of PHPG base from China and Singapore and anti-dumping duty was imposed with effect from February 15, 2002.
