TMI Blog2004 (6) TMI 360X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... een exported to India below normal value, resulting in dumping; (b) the Indian industry has suffered material injury and threat thereof; (c) injury has been caused by imports from the subject countries; (emphasis supplied). 2. Three out of Four appeals have been filed by the domestic consumers of PSF (imported as well as domestically produced) for spinning yarn and the fourth appeal is by the domestic industry producing PSF. Both groups constitute important segments of Indian industry. The innumerable yarn manufacturers are a large traditional provider of goods and employment and PSF manufacturers, though few, constitute a big part of highly capital intensive petrochemical industry. Thus, both interests are vital to the country and in a sense both are domestic industry, though the law relating to anti-dumping classify them as conflicting interests, PSF manufacturers as domestic industry and yarn manufacturers as importers . Yarn manufacturer seek open sourcing of their raw materials and PSF industry seeks remunerative prices. 3. Though the appeals of the importers have raised several issues relating to the procedure adopted by the Designated Authority, dur ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of investigation i.e. January 2000 to September 2000. It is their point that such a period, which straddles parts of two Financial Years cannot yield data which could be the basis for a proper financial analysis. It is contended that the proper thing for the authority would have been to choose a full Financial Year so that reliable data would be available for a year to compare with the data of previous years and to reach reliable conclusions. The appellants have almost made an allegation that the choice of an improper period has been done to obfuscate and to award a finding in favour of the domestic industry. The main reason for making this allegation is that on the question of volume of imports of dumped goods (Para 20 of the final finding) the Designated Authority has projected volume growth improperly by annualizing the import of 8119 MT for January to September 2000 to 14202 for the whole year so as to yield an increase in import of 54% for the full year 2000 as compared to actual import of 9228 during the previous financial year 1999-2000. It is the submission of the learned Counsel that the proper thing for the authority would have been to go by the actual figures available f ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ta so filed was got verified by the Officers of the Designated Authority who filed their verification report on 27th May 2004. The domestic industry has also filed data with regard to return on investment of the consumers of PSF in India. 9. The legal provision is that Anti-Dumping duty is not to be imposed routinely on a finding that there was dumping. It is equally important that there be material injury to the domestic industry and that there is a causal link between material injury and dumping. The appellant s submission is that in the present case, objective parameters could lead only to the conclusion that there was no injury. They have also contended that conclusions are required to be reached by the Designated Authority based on the objective analysis of actual data and not based on incorrect annualisation, assumption of pre-fixed return on capital etc. 10. We have perused the records and considered the submissions made by all parties including the Designated Authority. We have also considered the data filed during the hearing of the appeals. We find no reason to be detained by the contentions relating to selection of inappropriate period of investigation, incorrect ann ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... st costs the companies had to bear. It has been claimed that the domestic industry is entitled to a fair return on its investment but due to the price effect of the dumped imports, the domestic industry has not been able to realize a fair price. The Authority has analysed the financial information provided by the domestic industry and has also got the verification done. It has been seen that the return on capital employed has been negative for the domestic industry, which is a critical aspect of the injury to the domestic industry . 13. As has already been noted in this order, detailed information about the historical return on capital employed and aspects of pricing of PSF have been filed by the domestic industry. The position in regard to rate of return for the years 1993-94 to 1999-2000 is represented in the graph below :- The above graph makes it clear that the swing is vast. Further, in the year 1999 to 2000, the domestic industry was having a very healthy return. The first quarter of the period of investigation is the last quarter of that profitable year. Therefore, the claim of loss or nominal profit is not borne out by the data for the last financial year for which ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... el to recover its full cost of production and to achieve a reasonable return . This finding does not fit in with the actual numbers made available during the hearing or the graph above and the position noted earlier about return on investment. The position appears to be that the two prices are moving somewhat independently. Domestic prices remained reasonably higher than import prices for more than two third of the time. May be, there is a gravitational pull on each other. Clearly it is not one way, that the imported goods (price) dictated domestic prices. 16. A very important aspect of selling price of PSF produced in India during the POI is that, according to the data made available by the domestic industry itself, raw material price increase during the POI consumed only 67% of the increase in sale price of PSF, while that percentage was higher at 69% during the previous year. Thus, higher selling prices of PSF was not being neutralized by increases in raw material prices. 17. The overall position of the domestic industry during the period of investigation is that it had excellent capacity utilization, very low inventory, modest sale price rise and good return on investment. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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