The Government of India on the recommendation of the Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties have imposed anti-dumping duty on import of various polyester yarns from China and Thailand for a period of five years, effective from 21 October has evoked mixed response from the industry.

Government has imposed anti-dumping duty of $547 on every metric tonne of all fully-drawn or fully-oriented yarn, spin draw yarn and flat yarn of polyester. The ant-dumping duty applicable on imports from Jiangsu Hengli Chemical Fibre Co. Ltd. would be $256 per ton, while it would be $547 per ton for the specified yarn imported from any other Chinese company.

Likewise, the duty on imports from Indorama Polyester Industries Public Company Limited (formerly Indo Poly (Thailand) Ltd.) would be $57.78 per ton, while it would be $248.63 for import of specified yarn from all other Thai companies.

According to Chairman Vardhaman group, S P Oswal, the step would not be beneficial for garment manufacturers as they have to compete with manufacturers from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and many other such countries that are getting yarn at cheaper price from China and some other countries. This would ultimately hurt the international market of garment manufacturers in the country and thus impact their exports.

However, chairman Ludhiana Knitwear Club Vinod Thapar said that though there is some bit of truth in the fact that garment manufacturers, especially those into t-shirts and shirts, will not be able to get cheaper yarn from China, the step would, at the same time, help manufacturers of yarn in India. He is of the view that that this is a good step and now government need to also concentrate on providing more support to the industry at other levels so that yarn manufacturers are able to compete with China.

As per Rajiv Garg, owner of Garg Acrylics, this would help filament yarn manufacturers; filament yarn is used in t-shirts and sports wear and would thus definitely have an impact on manufacturers as well. But to make things really beneficial, government should be imposing anti-dumping duty on fabric imported in large quantity from China.

According to Kuntal Jain, Director of Duke group, the government has taken steps to help local industry and manufacturers. But it need to take more steps towards balancing the situation and providing a level playing field to all the sectors like providing some incentives for the manufacturers, especially to help them in cost cutting and enable to fight cheap goods from China.

On the other hand, President of Punjab Spinners Association, Madan Mohan Vyas offering a neutral view said that the anti-dumping duty was not going to show much impact straight away as this yarn is used more in mink blankets and sportswear. At the same time, he did not deny that this would have an impact on garment manufacturers. He said that things would change if the government gives more support to manufacturers in addition to levying of anti-dumping duty to strengthen its vision of 'Make in India'. He added saying that he was quite sure that the government would take some more steps and measures to help manufacturers take on international competitors.