Local electric part producers accuse China of dumping

JAKARTA (JP): The Association of Indonesian Electric Equipment Manufacturers accused China yesterday of dumping its electric parts in Indonesia.

The association's chairman, Januar Muin, said dumping was an intentional Chinese strategy to win the market.

The practice has caused great losses to local producers because most of their products can no longer compete with those from China, which are generally sold here at very low price levels.

"Most local producers have also lost out in the tender for the supply of electric equipment to state-owned PT Telkom and PLN due to the lower prices offered by the Chinese bidders," he said.

He said that electricity and telephone cables originating from China, for example, are sold here 25 percent cheaper than those manufactured locally.

"The prices of the Chinese products are set below their production costs and that's why it is impossible for us to compete against them," Januar said.

He said, however, that the association could not formally submit its dumping charge to the Chinese authorities due to the absence of an anti-dumping law in Indonesia.

Januar said that the organization also would not bring the dumping case to the international arbitrage agency but instead report the matter to Indonesia's Directorate General for Excise and Duty.

Reporting the dumping charge to the local excise and duty office will not be effective to deal with the dumped products, he acknowledged.

"There is no response so far, but we are determined to report the case to the government in order to protect the local electric equipment industry," he said.

Challenge

Januar said that the dumping practice is one of the challenges that local electrical equipment producers have to face in the coming years, in addition to the requirement to meet the quality management standardizations such as the widely used ISO-9000.

He said that beginning next year, all producers of electric equipment should have the ISO-9000 certification to be able take part in tenders for the supply of electric equipment to both Telkom, the state-owned telecommunication firm, and PLN, the state-owned electricity company.

Januar said that the association's members mostly produce cables with a capacity of below 500 KV and, besides selling the products to PLN and Telkom, also market them to the United States, Europe, Japan and several Asian countries.

The value of Indonesia's electric equipment exports rose by 42 percent to US$596 million last year from around $418.3 million in 1993.(hen)