Mumbai, India, September 15, 2006--Thanks to poorly conceived import-export tariffs, ceramic tile makers in India are withering under an onslaught of inexpensive Chinese ceramic tiles, according to India's Financial Express.
Mirroring competitive woes worldwide, including concerns of European and American tile manufacturers, Indian tile makers are pleading with their government to level the playing field before Chinese imports wipe out Indian domestic production.
According to the Financial Express (financialexpress.com), Indian tile analysts believe that, "by the end of this year, the volume of tiles dumped in the Indian market will touch Rs 450 crore, sounding death knell for the domestic manufacturers. To salvage the situation, the industry has appealed to the government for a cut in excise duty from the current 16% to 8%."
"The prevalent anomaly of inverted duty structure has been a major factor contributing to dumping. For example, a trader importing tiles from China pays only 5.37% basic custom duty while the local manufacturers importing raw materials pay a much higher duty, like 12.5% for abrasives,10% for boric acid and frits and ceramic colors and 7.5% for ceramic rollers etc.
"Moreover, China, being a non-market economy, there are several types of assistance, concessions, aids which are made available to the Chinese ceramic tile industry. All these provide an unfair advantage to the Chinese over the local industry in terms of costs. As a result, import of ceramic tiles from China is much cheaper and is therefore huge in volumes.
Alas, rupee-conscious Indian businesses welcome the cheap Chinese imports, and do not hesitate to pump up their margins with the cheaper tiles.
The Indian-Chinese tile price war heated up three years ago, and now prices seem to be a low as they can go, the news agency reports.
""According to the recommendations made by the Indian Council of Ceramic Tiles & Sanitaryware (ICCTAS), the apex council of tile manufacturers in India, “The excise duty rationalisation would help give a major boost to the ceramic tile industry’s rural thrust."
