Singapore — India has ended antidumping duties on graphite electrodes imported from China, effective September 6, according to a document from the Ministry of Finance.
The duties were imposed on February 13, 2015, for a period of five years.
On April 4, 2018, India's department of commerce began a review of the duties following an application from the Alloy Steel Producers Association of India.
The association "...claimed that the circumstances that were prevalent during the period of investigation of the original investigation have changed significantly leading to a situation where the existing antidumping duties are no longer warranted."
The commerce department's investigations revealed that the overall share of graphite electrodes imported from China fell to 55% over April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018, from 69% in 2012.
Also, the Chinese imports have not hurt the domestic industry and "...there is an acute shortage of the subject goods in India...," the finance ministry said.
The shortage resulted from "an insignificant increase in production capacities" of local graphite producers, combined with higher demand from domestic steelmakers, it said.
HEG, an Indian graphite electrode producer, had said it was unable to cope with additional demand due to a rise in EAF (electric arc furnance) steel production.
As a result of the findings, the ministry said it will "discontinue antidumping duty levied on 'graphite electrodes of all diameters' originating in or exported from China."
Graphite electrodes are used as a heating element in steelmaking. Every ton of steel produced through electric arc furnace requires about 2kg of graphite electrodes.
