It’s over but its not over: The summer after drupa

After a pleasant and unexpectedly rainy April and an equally unexpectedly temperate May, June is upon us in New Delhi. Fiercely hot with an occasional dust storm and daytime temperatures touching 44 and 46 degrees centigrade and night time lows above 30, we are now waiting for the rains – the monsoon which hit the Kerala coast on time at the beginning of the month, proceeded up the coast to Mumbai and is expected to reach us by the end of June.

If you were there at drupa, you were there. You made your choice and you saw what you saw and you learnt what you could. You had a good time, met up with printers across town that you haven’t seen for a decade. You saw many others who were totally unfamiliar, a sign of the Indians being the largest foreign contingent at the show. You met up with the sons and daughters of printers – the new breed of highly educated and very polite kids that only printers have. And then you came back to the heat and dust and the grinding work – trying to remember what you saw and trying to digest what it means.

In Delhi this has meant several events by paper manufacturers – itself unusual, but a sign that paper mills and traders are becoming aware of the possibilities of our large market and the necessity of increasing their branding. It’s no longer the sellers’ market that it once was.

Meanwhile we are putting together our drupa experiences for readers in what we hope are meaningful and digestible articles in both our magazines. This itself is a luxury – to have two magazines and one especially for packaging – the most earthy flavour at this drupa notwithstanding the digital raz matazz. There are some review events also, like the drupa impression event in Mumbai on 30 June where I have been invited to give an overview and share my understandings, skepticisms and futurisms on digital print and packaging.

These are generally good events and they reflect the enthusiasm of an industry that is still growing in the traditional ways of print. Often, the leading printers reveal the direction of their thinking and they are generally quite smart – they are part of an industry that is capable of realizing drupa for what it really is – a knowledge event that gets us thinking, debunking, sharing, enacting.

Naresh Khanna editor@ippgroup.in

Finance Industry notifies interim anti-dumping duty on digital offset plates

Naresh Khanna

In a communication received by us on the evening of 5 June 2012, we learnt that the Ministry of Finance of the Government of India has on 4 June 2012 notified the anti-dumping duty basically following the findings and guidelines recommended by the interim findings of the anti-dumping commission of the Ministry of Commerce. The only modification that we notice is a formula to convert the various thicknesses of offset plates taking into account that 1.318 square metres of aluminium offset digital plate is equal to 1 kilogram. This is apparently to take care of the fact that imported CtP plates subject to the anti-dumping duty are imported in varying thicknesses.

The anti-dumping duty is notified on the basis of the US$ prices per square metre as given in the preliminary findings. However the anti-dumping duty imposed under this notification (Notification No. 31/2012-Customs (ADD) New Delhi, the 4^th June, 2012) shall be effective for a period not exceeding six months from the publication of this notification in the Official Gazette and shall be payable in Indian Rupees.
 
Our view:
It is hoped that the final findings that were expected to be delivered by 1 June 2012 will actually be delivered sooner than later and that they will take into account the various anomalies pointed out by the concerned parties during the open hearings and in submissions thereafter by the concerned parties and several medium and large printers across the country. We also hope that the fragmented printed industry will continue to come together to discuss this issue and to make their views known to the anti-dumping commission. Meanwhile all imports of CtP plates are immediately subject to the given rates given in US$ and to be paid in the currently equivalent Indian Rupees.

Anti-dumping on offset plates – final findings delayed?

Like many concerned industry watchers we were expecting the final findings of the anti-dumping commission of the commerce ministry to arrive last week. See our earlier edit-blogs at http://indianprinterpublisher.blogspot.in. Apparently the visits by commission members to the relevant factories of the Chinese and Japanese manufacturers took place in May. Subsequent to the open hearing in which lawyers from TechNova, Kodak, Fuji, Lucky Huaguang Graphics and the Kerala Master Printers Association spoke, written submissions were made by them and other concerned parties. Printers of varying sizes from all over India have written to the commission and met its members to express their objections to the anti-dumping duty on digital offset plates.

While it is too early to say what the final findings will be, one cannot deny that the delay has given hope to many of the printers who have dared to speak out against TechNova’s claim of injury. These include Thomson Press, Pragati Offset, Adarsh Offset, the members of the Kerala Master Printers Association, and several others. As we wrote earlier, the fragmented printing industry mostly consisting of small and medium players is maturing and finally some of the medium and bigger players are finding their voice and speaking out on record. Anti-dumping duty apart, this is the biggest change in the Indian print industry – that they can with some concerted efforts act individually and together (as in the case of the Kerala Master Printers Association) for some worthwhile business objectives beyond their own individual and personal benefit.

The issue of anti-dumping duty on offset plates is important and printers and their state associations, and in deed, the newspaper, magazine and book publishing associations must also look at the issues, enter the discussion and give their views to the anti-dumping commission of the commerce Ministry. They must also communicate to the Finance Ministry that the interim findings not be not be notified until all the questions raised by the concerned parties are answered and taken into account in the final findings.

                                                                                         
          — Naresh Khanna
editor@ippgroup.in

An example of the communication sent to the Anti-dumping Commission of the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, Udyog Bhavan, New Delhi by Ashish Rajoria of Adarsh Printers in Bhopal, that was shared with us.

Dear Mr. Satish Kumar,

We are Offset printers based out of Bhopal and we wish to register a strong objection to the proposed anti dumping duty on offset plates.

In our views Technova is trying to further strengthen its monopoly in the market. You must be aware that Technova has already either bought or forced the competition to close shop (example Stovec and Neeraj).

There are many small printers who have paid a higher price for a CtCP machine, based on the fact that their variable cost will be lower as they can use conventional offset plates.

We are reminded of the days when automobile industry was averse to the opening of the market to the international players (example Bajaj etc were against opening of the market to international players). It is worth mentioning that even after the opening of the economy, Bajaj has grown and is a market leader. So why does Technova want to have anti dumping duty, they should be satisfied with being a market leader and let fair competition prevail.

It is also note worthy that there are various printers who are exporting print, any such duty will only add to their production cost. Fact remains that Indian printers are barely able to compete with Chinese printers, why should Govt. of India make it impossible to printers to get any export orders at all.

We hope we are heard and justice is done by not imposing anti dumping duty on offset plates.

Thanks and kind regards,

Ashish Rajoria, Director, Aadarsh Pvt. Ltd.

Shikhar Varta, 4, Press Complex, Zone 1, M.P. Nagar

Bhopal 462011 (M.P.), INDIA

Cell.: +91 9893062555, Fax: +91-755-2555449

E-mail: a.rajoria@aadarsh.com

Anti-dumping Commission: Satish Kumar, Director, telephone number 011- 2306 3642; eMail:satishk@nic.in ; or,satprag@gmail.com . You can also download the preliminary findings from www.commerce.nic.in/writereaddata/traderemedies/adpref_Digital_Offset_Printing_Plates_ChinaPR_Japan.pdf