India levies duties on China soda ash, joining global trade war

10 November 2009 16:36  [Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--India’s government said on Tuesday it has levied a 20% duty on Chinese soda ash imports, another action in what appears to be a global offensive against Chinese soda ash exports.

The duty, as announced by India’s Ministry of Finance, will last until April 2010. India’s soda ash producers, including Tata, Gujarat Heavy Chemicals and Nirma, had sought the tariff.

“Increased imports of soda ash into India from the People's Republic of China had caused and threatened to cause market disruption to domestic industry,” a Ministry representative said in the published decision.

According to statistics from India’s Directorate General of Safeguards, imports of Chinese soda ash increased to 15,000 tonnes in the month of December 2008 from just more than 4,000 tonnes/month between April and October of that year. 

China’s soda ash producers had already been dealing with US producers’ renewed efforts to grab global market share.

US producers, through their trade arm American Natural Soda Ash (ANSAC), have drastically lowered prices on the export market to undercut Chinese product and regain the market share they lost when the global economy collapsed.

With India’s placement of tariffs, competition between the US and China in the rest of Asia could become more fierce, said Rob Felice, a stock analyst at J Goldman who follows the industry.

“China is trying to keep the factories running and trying to ship as much soda ash as they can wherever they can,” Felice said. “This will force them to go elsewhere in Asia and ultimately could create more competition between China and ANSAC.”

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By: Ben Lefebvre
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