The $30 million domestic optical fibre industry is set to receive a major boost following the restoration of the anti-dumping duties by the Supreme Court last week.
The apex court has set aside the Cegat stay order on the implementation of the anti-dumping duties imposed in December 1999, resulting in an import duty of around $3 -$8 per fibre km.
Fibre optic manufacturers Sterlite Optical, Finolex Cables, Aksh Optical will be the major beneficiaries as a result of protection from low-priced Korean products.
K S Rao, marketing director, Sterlite Optical, told Business Standard, "The Korean companies were selling at a price lower than our cost of production, which was causing major harm to the domestic manufacturers."
While domestic producers sold at around $11-$12 per fibre km, the Korean products were available at around $5-$6 per fibre km, he added.
The domestic industry has an installed capacity of 5 million fibre km, but was working at less than 50 per cent capacity utilisation due to less demand for Indian optical fibre.
"As a result of this announcement, we are expecting the share of Indian fibre optic manufacturers to go up by 30 per cent in this year," Rao said.
The government is also likely to benefit through collection of duties of around $2 million for past imports.
Around 40 per cent of the Indian market was controlled by the Korean manufacturers due to lower pricing.
"All those domestic cable companies importing from the Korean manufacturers would be impacted adversely," said an industry source.
The anti-dumping duties were first imposed in December 1999, after two large Korean fibre optic manufacturers started dumping their goods in India at almost half the ruling price.
"Due to pressure from the importers, the anti-dumping order received a stay by Cegat and imports continued. The Supreme Court's decision to set aside the stay order will help the domestic producers to increase their market share," an industry analyst said.
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