Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/490948
I DA U N I V E R S A L M a rc h -A p r i l 2 0 1 5 33 TRENDS AND TIDBITS continued from page 19 Trends continued on page 39 Indonesia has joined a growing list of countries that have imposed protectionist measures to safeguard inter- ests of their domestic steel industries. Indian steel compa- nies, too, have sought a duty hike to counter the impact of rising steel imports and are pinning their hopes on getting some relief in the Union budget. Indonesia plans to introduce a 15 percent anti- dumping duty on steel to prevent massive steel imports with the new duty likely to be implemented by March 2015. However, it's not the fi rst country to introduce anti-dumping duty on steel products. Recently, China Indonesia May Impose 15 Percent Anti-Dumping Duty on Steel Products imposed anti-dumping duty on certain stainless steel tubes from Japan and the European Union. Malaysia, too, slapped anti-dumping duty on hot rolled coils imported from China and Indonesia. Since October 2014, Vietnam has also imposed duties on cold-rolled stainless steel from China, Malaysia and Indonesia. e latter imported 8.2 million tonne (MT) of steel in 2013, against 3.4 MT in 2009. is will protect domestic steel manufacturers, said Indonesia's coordinating minister for the economy, Sofyan Djalil. R. Muralidharan, senior director, Deloitte, in India, said: "Governments are taking measures to encourage the domestic manufacturing industry. It can either be done by reducing duty on raw materials to lower the cost of production or by raising duty on fi nished products to curtail cheap imports. It goes well with the logic of maintaining a duty diff er- ential between raw materials and fi nal products." Analysts attribute China's overcapacity as the main reason behind it. Abhisar Jain, research analyst at Centrum Broking, said: "China is suff ering from a chronic overcapacity. While there has been a slowdown in its economy, it's unable to reduce production in a big way and needs to fi nd markets for the steel it is producing. is has led to an increase in exports and a ripple eff ect with prices falling." Indian steel companies have been urging the govern- ment to take measures to restrain steel imports, mainly from China, Japan and Korea. ● http://economictimes.indiatimes.com, Feb 24, 2015 e U.S. government is investigating how Caterpillar has been moving cash between its business units in the U.S. and overseas, the construction equipment company said recently. Caterpillar said it received a grand jury subpoena from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois on Jan. 8 that asked for fi nancial information related to undistributed profi ts of non-U.S. subsidiaries and cash movements. Caterpillar did not give further details, but said it is cooperating with the investigation and that it should not aff ect its business or fi nances. e company disclosed the investigation in a fi ling with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. e fi ling also said, separately, that the SEC told Caterpillar in September that it was conducting an "informal investigation" of the compa- ny's affi liate in Switzerland called Caterpillar SARL. e SEC declined to comment. Caterpillar's tax strategy related to Caterpillar SARL has been criticized previ- ously. Last year, a congres- sional report said that the Peoria, Illinois-based company avoided paying $2.4 billion in U.S. taxes since 2000 by shi ing profi ts overseas. It said Caterpillar was using the Swiss affi liate to transfer the rights to profi ts from its parts business in order to avoid taxes. At the time, Caterpillar said it followed all tax laws. A spokeswoman for Cater- pillar did not immediately respond to a request for comment. e company, which had revenue of $55 billion last year, makes mining drills, tractors and other heavy machinery. It has 114,000 employees around the world, with about 51,000 of them in the U.S. ● www.brandonsun.com, Feb 18, 2015 Construction Equipment Company Caterpillar Says US is Investigating Its Movement of Cash