A group of textile companies recently approached the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) against a move by Reliance Industries and India Glycols seeking imposition of anti-dumping duties on a raw material used to make polyester. In a letter to DGTR, an association representing companies like Indo Rama Synthetics India, Filatex India, Garden Silk Mills and Bombay Dyeing, Director General BS Bhalla have argued that imposing such a duty on the material — mono ethylene glycol (MEG) — would lead to a ‘significant’ loss to India’s textile units. It would increase the cost of textiles and the ability of textile units to increase the prices commensurate with the increase in costs is very limited.
The association, which represents 21 end users claiming to account for two million metric tonne per year of MEG consumption, also submitted that India’s current MEG production capacity fell short of the demand of the product by around 36 per cent.
India imported around $532 million worth of ethylene glycol from countries in 2018-19, and around $320.18 million between April and November 2019, according to data from the Commerce Ministry. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and United Arab Emirates were the top exporters of this product to India last fiscal.
Last year, Reliance Industries — in a petition supported by India Glycols — had alleged that there was dumping of MEG from the abovementioned countries as well as Oman.
