Plain Medium Density (PMD) Fibre Board from Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia – Anti-dumping Investigation Initiated on Complaint of Greenply, Century and Greenpanel

(6mm and above already covered by Ntfns 48-ADD/21.10.2015 (Malaysia, Thailand, China and Sri Lanka) and 34-ADD/14.07.2016 (Indonesia and Vietnam), Current notification Covers remaining thickness of PMD Fibre Board of Less Than 6mm)

[DGTR Initiation Notification Case No. ADD-01-11/2020 dated 22 April 2020]

Subject: - Initiation of Anti-dumping investigation concerning imports of Plain Medium Density Fibre Board having thickness less than 6 mm originating in or exported from Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

F.No.6/13/2020-DGTR - 1. M/s Greenply Industries Limited / M/s Greenpanel Industries Limited, and M/s Century Plyboards (India) Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the "Applicants") have filed an application before the Designated Authority (hereinafter also referred to as the "Authority), on behalf of the domestic industry, in accordance with the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 as amended from time to time (hereinafter also referred as the "Act") and the Customs Tariff (Identification, Assessment and Collection of Anti-dumping Duty on Dumped Articles and for Determination of Injury) Rules, 1995, as amended from time to time (hereinafter also referred as the "Rules"), for an original Anti-dumping investigation concerning imports of Plain Medium Density Fibre Board having thickness less than 6 mm (hereinafter also referred to as "product under consideration" or "PUC" or "subject goods"), originating in or exported from Vietnam, New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

2. The Applicants have alleged that material injury to the Domestic Industry is being caused due to dumped imports from Vietnam, New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia and have requested for imposition of anti-dumping duty on the imports of the subject goods, originating in or exported from the said countries.

Subject Countries

3. The Applicants have claimed injury due to dumped imports from Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and New Zealand. However, as per the Authority's analysis, no injury is being caused to the domestic industry due to imports from New Zealand. Accordingly, the subject countries for the present investigation shall be Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

Product under Consideration

4. The product under consideration in the investigation is "Plain Medium Density Fiber board having thickness less than 6 mm". The product has been defined as under:

The product under consideration is Plain Medium Density Fiber Board, also known as Plain MDF Board. It is a composite wood product made out of wood waste fibers glued together with urea formaldehyde resin or melamine resin by applying heat and pressure. It is widely used for partitions, Modular furniture, cabinets etc, due to its smooth and uniform finish. MDF Board is produced in plain form and lamination is additional processing which is carried out after production of Plain MDF Board.

The laminated Medium Density Fibre Board (laminated MDF Board) is beyond the scope of product under consideration. The Plain Medium Density Fibre Board having thickness of 6 mm or more is excluded from the product scope. The product under consideration accordingly is "Plain Medium Density Fibre Board having thickness less than 6 mm".

5. The subject goods are classifiable under Chapter 4 of the Act, under sub-headings 44111200 and 44111300. However, the subject goods are being imported under other tariff sub-heading also, i.e. 44119219, 44119229, 44119319, 44119419 as well. These custom classifications are indicative only and in no way binding on the scope of this investigation.

Like Article

6. The Applicants have claimed that the subject goods, which are being dumped into India, are identical to the goods produced by the domestic industry. There are no differences either in the technical specifications, quality, functions or end-uses of the dumped imports and the domestically produced subject goods. The two are technically and commercially substitutable and hence should be treated as 'like article' under the Rules. Therefore, for the purpose of the present investigation, the subject goods produced by the Applicants in India are being treated as 'Like Article' to the subject goods being imported from the subject countries.

Domestic Industry

7. The application has been filed by M/s Greenply Industries Limited/ M/s Greenpanel Industries Limited, and Century Plyboards (India) Ltd. Considering the information on record, the Applicants account for a major proportion of the Indian production. The Applicants have claimed that they neither imported the subject goods from the subject countries nor are related to any exporter or producer of subject goods in the subject country or any importer of the PUC in India. The Authority has, therefore, considered the Applicants as Domestic Industry within the meaning of the Rule 2 (b) and Rule 5 (3) of the Rules.

Basis of dumping

i. Normal Value

8. In case of the subject countries, the Applicants have claimed normal value on the basis of prices prevailing in respective countries, based on prices reported in a Market Research Report.

ii Export Price

9. The Authority has computed the export price for subject goods for the subject countries based on Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCI&S) transaction-wise import data. Adjustments have been made for ocean freight, marine insurance, commission, inland freight expenses, port expenses and bank charges.

10.The normal value and the export price have been compared at ex-factory level, which prima facie shows significant dumping margin in respect of the PUC from the subject countries. There is sufficient prima facie evidence that the PUC are being dumped into the India by the producers/exporters from the subject countries.

Injury and Causal link

11. lnformation furnished by the Applicants has been considered for assessment of injury to the domestic industry. The Applicants have furnished evidence regarding the injury having taken place as a result of the alleged dumping in the form of increased volume of dumped imports, price undercutting, and price suppressing effect on the domestic industry. The Applicants have claimed that their performance have been adversely impacted resulting in decline in profits and return on capital employed as a result of increase in imports of PUC at a price below selling price and non-injurious price for the domestic industry. There is sufficient prima facie evidence that the injury exists and is

being caused to the domestic industry by dumped imports from subject countries.

Initiation of Anti-Dumping Investi2ation

12. On the basis of the duly substantiated written application by or on behalf of the domestic industry, and having satisfied itself, on the basis of the prima facie evidence submitted by the domestic industry, about dumping of the product under consideration originating in or exported from the subject countries, injury to the domestic industry and causal link between such alleged dumping and injury, and in accordance with Section 9A of the Act read with Rule 5 of the Rules, the Authority, hereby, initiates an investigation to determine the existence, degree and effect of any alleged dumping in respect of the product under consideration originating in or exported from the subject countries and to recmmnend the amount of anti-dumping duty, which if levied, would be adequate to remove the injury to the domestic industry.

Period of investigation

13. The Auth01ity proposes the period of i nvesti gation (POI) for the present investigati on as J anuary 201 9 to December 20J 9 (12 months). The injury investigat i on period wi ll cover the periods A pril 201 6- Ma rch 201 7, April 20 1 7-March 2018, April 2018-March 2019

and the POI.

Procedure

1 4. Principles as gi ven in Rul e 6 of the Rul es wi ll be followed i n the present investigation.

Submission of Information

1 5. In vi ew of the speci al circumstances ansmg out of COVID-1 9 pandemi c, all communication should be sent to the Desi gnated Authori ty via email at the emai l ad dresses adg12-dgtr(agov.in and adv l 3-d6rtr({{)gov.in

16. The, known producers/exporters in the subject countries, thyir governments tlu·ough their embassies in India, the importers and users in India known to be concerned with the subject goods and the domestic industry are being informed separately to enable them to file all the relevant information in the fonn and matmer prescribed within the time-limit set out below.

17. Any other interested party may also make its submissions relevant to the investigation in the prescribed form and manner within the time limit set out below.

18. Any party making any confidential submission before the Authority is required to make a non-confidential version of the same available to other interested parties.

Time Limit

19. In view of the special circumstances arising out of COVID-19 pandemic, any information relating to the present investigation should be sent to the Designated Authority via email at the email addresses adgl2-dgh·@gov.in and ad v13-dgtr@gov.in within 60 days of the issue of this initiation notification. If no information is received within the prescribed time limit or the information received is incomplete, the Authority may record its

findings on the basis of the facts available on record in accordance with the Rules.

20. All the interested parties are hereby advised to intimate their interest (including the nature of interest) in the instant matter and file their questionnaire responses within the above time limit.

Submission of information on confidential basis

21. Any party making any confidential submi ssion or providing information on confidential basis before the Authority, i s required to simultaneously su bmit a non-confidential version of the same in terms of Rule 7(2) of the Rules and the Trade Notices issued in this rega rd. Fai lu re to ad here to the above may l ead to rejecti on of the response I

su bmi ssions.

22. The pa rti es making an y s ubmi ssion (including A ppendices/A n nexures attached theret o), before the Authority including questionnaire response, arc requ ired to file Confiden ti a l and Non-Confidenti a l versions separatel y.

23. The "confidential" or "non-confidential" submissions must be clearl y marked as "confidential" or "non-confidential" at the top of each page. A ny submi ssion mad e without such marking shall be treated as non-confidential by the Authority, and the Authority shall be at liberty to allow the other interested parties to inspect such submissions.

24. The confidential version shall contain all infonnation which is by nature confidential and/or other information which the supplier of such infonnation claims as confidential. For infonnation which are claimed to be confidential by nature or the information on which confidentiality is claimed because of other reasons, the supplier of the infonnation is required to provide a good cause statement along with the supplied information as to why such infonnation cannot be disclosed.

25. The non-confidential version is required to be a replica of the confidential version with the confidential information preferably indexed or blanked out (in case indexation is not feasible) and summarized depending upon the information on which confidentiality is claimed. The non-confidential summary must be in sufficient detail to pennit a reasonable understanding of the substance of the information furnished on confidential basis. However, in exceptional circumstances, the party submitting the confidential information may indicate that such information is not susceptible to summary, and a statement of reasons why summarization is not possible must be provided to the

satisfaction of the Authority.

26.The Authority may accept or reject the request for confidentiality on examination of the nature of the information submitted. If the Authority is satisfied the request for confidentiality is not warranted or if the supplier of the infonnation is either unwilling to make the information public or to authorize its disclosure in generalized or summary fonn, it may disregard such information.

27. Any submission made without a meaningful non-confidential version thereof or without good cause statement on the confidentiality claim shall not be taken on record by the Authority.

28. The Authority on being satisfied and accepting the need for confidentiality of the information provided, shall not disclose it to any party without specific authorization of the part y providing such infonnation.

Inspection of Public File

29. In terms of Rule 6(7) of the Rules, a n y interested part y may inspect the pub l ic fi l e containi n g non-confi d enti a l version of the eviden ce subm itt ed by other i nterested pa rties. The modality of maintaining pub l i c file in electronic mode i s bei ng worked out.

Non-cooperation

30. In case where an interested pa11y refuses access to, or otherwise does not provide necessary information within a reasonable period, or significantly impedes the investigation, the Authority may record its findings on the basis of the facts available to it and make such recommendations to the Central Govenunent as deemed fit.