Fiber makers play down EU anti dumping duty

JAKARTA (JP): Anti dumping duties imposed by the European Commission will not really hurt Indonesian fiber makers as the domestic market is absorbing much of the nation's fiber output, two major textile producers said on Thursday.

Corporate Secretary of publicly listed PT Indo-Rama Synthetics, Vs Baldwa, said that the company sold only a small amount of polyester staple fiber products to the European market.

"The effects of the anti-dumping duty is not that significant for us," Baldwa said, but declined to mention the company's export value to Europe.

Meanwhile, publicly listed PT Teijin Indonesia Fiber Corporation (Tifico) expressed similar optimism, saying that the European market made up only a small share of its polyester stable fiber sales.

"Our fiber sales to Europe are insignificant compared to sales in the domestic market," said Elinda Firga, a management staffer directing the company's stance against anti-dumping charges.

She said that increasing fiber demand in the domestic market even required Tifico to import fiber from its sister company in Thailand.

The European Commission on Monday issued anti-dumping duties on Indonesian fiber producers, ranging between 5.2 and 20.8 percent, following investigations in response to complaints by EU fiber producers.

The commission imposed the same duties, ranging between 13.6 and 35.3 percent, on Australian, Thailand and Taiwan fiber makers.

Baldwa said that most of Indo-Rama's polyester staple fiber products were absorbed by the domestic market, citing as an example that out of 60,000 tons of production, just 40 tons were sent to Europe.

The European Commission imposed anti-dumping duty of 5.2 percent on Indo-Rama fibers, which according to Baldwa was the smallest rate compared to those imposed on other Indonesian and foreign fiber producers in Australia, Thailand and Taiwan.

Baldwa said Indo-Rama received a lower anti-dumping duty because the company set the highest price on its products. "There is actually an opportunity for us to continue our export to Europe."

Meanwhile, Elinda said the European Commission imposed 13.7 percent anti-dumping duty on the Tifico's fiber, which according to her would effectively shut its European market.

"Moreover, we sell our fibers to trading houses who in turn export them to Europe; so our products aren't cheap," Elinda said.

She said the company had yet to obtain a written statement from the European Commission, elaborating their decision.

According to her, Tifico had been very cooperative during the one year investigation period, saying that Indonesian companies that failed to follow the proceedings were charged 20.8 percent.

Both Baldwa and Elinda said the imposition of anti-dumping surcharges by the European Commission was certainly undesirable.

Baldwa said the anti-dumping decision by the commission was more based on their efforts to save EU's fiber industry from bankruptcy rather than upholding fair trading principles.

"They were heading towards bankruptcy because they're not competitive," he said and suggested the decision went against the spirit of free trade as championed by the World Trade Organization. (03)