Indonesia’s yarn producers have urged the government to impose a temporary safeguard duty on imported yarn products, which they say have severely damaged the market for locally made products, a leading Indonesian newspaper has reported.
Local yarn products, especially some major types of polyester, were mostly unable to compete with the cheaper imported yarns due to their higher production costs, the Indonesian Synthetic Fiber Association (APSyFI) secretary-general Redma G. Wirawasta said in Jakarta.
He claimed that many overseas yarn producers dumped their products on the Indonesian market and sold them at lower prices amid weak global demand.
“We have seen a rising demand for textile and garment products in recent years as our middle-class population has grown. But most of the garments use large amounts of imported yarns. We hope that the government helps the yarn producers until there is a stable supply and demand in the global market,” Redma told reporters after a meeting with industry minister Saleh Husin on June 22.
Redma said with the temporary safeguard duty, local downstream textile companies would use locally made yarn products.
The (APSyFI) predicted that the local textile industry’s total consumption of polyester would surge to around 650,000 tonnes this year, up from 620,000 tonnes last year, according to Redma.
Indonesia imported 135,000 tonnes lof polyester last year, a significant increase from 72,000 tonnes in 2010.
Polyester contributed the largest portion - 1.76 million tonnes or 39 per cent, to local textile fiber consumption last year according to the group’s data.
Local yarn makers had asked for anti-dumping duties in 2014, but Redma said even though the measure was imposed it was insufficient to reduce imported products.
Redma said the business group had formally filed its request for temporary safeguard duties to coordinating economic minister Sofyan Djalil, who had asked the trade ministry’s Indonesian Trade Safeguard Committee (KPPI) to provide assistance regarding the plan.
“We have talked to downstream companies and they understand our plan. However, we expect the government to bridge both of us, because it is they who will protect the local textile industry at the upstream to the downstream end,” Redma added.
