Indian agency seeks duties on lead acid batteries

Advanced Battery Technology, Jul 2002

The designate anti-dumping authority of India has recommended provisional duties against imports of lead acid batteries from Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

The Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied duties, under the Commerce Ministry, has in its preliminary findings concluded that "lead acid batteries were being exported to India from Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong below their normal value."

Further, the Indian industry has suffered material injury and is further being threatened with material injury caused by the dumped imports from the three countries.

The DGAD recommended different provisional duties for the four categories of acid batteries - industrial, automotive (NMF), automotive (MF), and motorcycle.

The duties would equal the differences between the $2.95 per kg and the landed value of imports of an industrial battery, $2.13 per kg and the landed value of automotive (NMF) battery imports, $2.04 per kg and the automotive (MF) battery imports and $3.73 per kg and the landed value of motorcycle battery imports.

DGAD had conducted the investigations on the basis of a petition filed by Exide Industries Ltd., Amara Raja Batteries, and Amco Batteries Ltd. for the domestic industry. The petitioners had alleged dumping from Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia. However, for countries other than the first three the volume of imports to India was found to be lower than the limit prescribed in the anti-dumping rules.