Government imposes anti-dumping duty on Polyester Spun Yarn (PSY), powerloom weavers unhappy

Surat : When Union Minister of State for Railways and Textiles, Darshana Jardosh was flagging off the Surat-Mahuva superfast special train from Surat railway station, the powerloom weavers in the country’s largest man-made fiber (MMF) centre got a rude shock with the Directorate General of Trade Remedies under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, imposed anti-dumping duty on the Polyester Spun Yarn (PSY) imported from China, Indonesia, Nepal and Vietnam on Thursday.

About eight PSY spinners in the country had filed application before the designated authority requesting the initiation of anti-dumping on PSY origninating from China, Indonesia, Nepal and Vietnam. The applicants claimed that the dumping of yarn from the subject countries has caused material injury to the domestic industry.

The MMF centre in Surat consumes about 8,000 metric tones (MT) of PSY per month. Many small and medium scale powerloom weavers have been weaving fabric using the PSY.

According to the investigation by the DGTR, there are about 239 producers of PSY in India with the annual production pegged at over 408 million kg. Against this, the import of virgin PSY fron China, Nepal, Indonesia and Vietnam has increased 972% from 2015 to 2020. However, imports from Vietnam alone have increased by a mammoth 107 times.

At a time when the yarn spinners in India are in jubiliant mode with the government imposing anti-dumping duty on the PSY, the domestic manufacturers of polyester fabrics are unhappy. They feel that the imposition of anti-dumping duty on PSY will only inflate the prices of the yarn in the domestic market and allow the yarn spinners to form a price cartel.

An industry expert asking anonymity said, “The quality of yarn manufactured in China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Nepal is much better than the indigenous yarn spinners. There was a competitive edge for the powerloom weavers to select from the quality yarn. Now, the anti-dumping duty is going to make the import yarns costlier and it will help the spinners to inflate prices in the domestic market”

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