Acting on a petition filed by domestic manufacturers Kores India Ltd and TCM Ltd, the designated authority in commerce ministry has imposed an anti-dumping duty which would be the difference between Rs 17,894 metric tonne (mt) and the landed value of imports per mt.

In its finding, the authority concluded that barium carbonate was exported from China at below `normal value' and therefore the Indian industry suffered material injury.

Barium carbonate is used in production of television glass shell, ferrite ring magnets and heat treatment salts.

The petitioners said that imports of barium carbonate had increased significantly in absolute terms from China while production by domestic manufacturers declined to 8616 mt in 1998-99 from 9439 mt 1995-96.

The capacity utilisation by the domestic industry also came down to 87.13 per cent in 1998-99 from 96.52 per cent in 1996-97.

Further, the sales volume also declined to 8145 mt in 1998-99 from 9655 mt in 1995-96.

The petitioners contended that there was no significant difference between the product manufactured in India and barium carbon exported from China.

They added that the indigenous product was comparable with product imported from China in terms of physical characteristics, manufacturing, functions and uses.

Videocon Narmada Electronics Ltd, which is an importer of barium carbonate, said that the powder form of the product manufactured locally was not suitable for manufacturing colour TV glass parts.

The importers, which include Ballarpur Industries and hotline glass besides Videocon, said no dumping was taking place from China.

The importers also said that there had been a recurrent shortage of barium carbonate supplies from Indian manufacturers.

Indian exporters will also lose their edge in loudspeaker magnets which used barium carbonate as an input as the competitors procured the product substantially cheaper from China.