The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has recommended anti-dumping duty on flat-rolled aluminium products from China to offset the damage caused due to dumping products in the Indian market.

This flat-rolled aluminium is used in solar module manufacturing of ground-mounted or rooftop solar projects. The investigation was carried out between 1st April 2019 to 31th March 2020.

Hindalco Industries with DGTR applied on behalf of domestic industries to begin the anti-dumping investigation on aluminium imports from China.

The production share of the petitioner is about 71% of the total production in India. Jindal Aluminium and Manaksia Aluminium Company supported the application.

The domestic industries said that the imports from China have increased during the injury period. Imports increased from 39% to 64% during the investigation period.

Hindalco Industries said that Chinese imports increased by 60% in the same period, but the petitioner's sales increased only by 2%.

Even after a decline in Chinese imports, the imports remained substantial during the investigation period. TheThe petitioner's sales in the investigation period were about 90%, compared to 53% in 2016-17 and 73% in 2017-18.

Hindalco said that due to low-cost imports, the company had not been able to sell its products to local customers, resulting in piling of inventories at its plants.

According to the petitioner, Chinese producers had significantly unutilised capacities and have enough for exports in India, which have only 0.5 million MT demand. Their capacity utilisation was about 60%.

Out of the total aluminium production in China, about 16% is for exports, including India.

DGTR notices that domestic industries suffered material injury during the investigation period. Examining the Chinese imports and the domestic industry's performance revealed that the dumping volume of Chinese imports increased in both absolute and relative terms.

The quantity of goods increased by over 60%, while the demand only increased by 18%. The market share of domestic industries also decreased by 12% during the investigation period. The market share of Chinese imports increased by 35% during the same period.

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