The discussion, following a plant visit of TechNova’s digital plate manufacturing plant, was dominated by safeguard duty imposed by the Indian government on the import of rolled aluminium products from China; especially litho-grade aluminium coils which are used for manufacturing of printing plates.

TechNova plans to appeal to the government to create a level playing field by exempting import of litho-grade aluminium from the safeguard duty. The AIFMP has supported this petition.

Pranav Parikh, chairman and managing director of TechNova stated: "The issue of safeguard duty on litho-grade aluminium is a serious one. It results in an inverse duty structure, i.e. Safeguard

Duty on raw material, while there is no safeguard duty on the import of the finished products (offset plates) made from this raw material.  If this continues, it can have serious consequences for the future of the offset plate manufacturing industry in India".

While Manoj Mehta, president of the AIFMP deplores the idea of protectionism, he is full of admiration for how TechNova has served the industry. And so the AIFMP has decided to "support this cause as it is in the interest of the Indian print industry."

The issue is: inverse duty structure is resulting in higher cost of imported litho-grade aluminium coils which constitute 60%-70% of the cost of a plate, plus  lower prices of Chinese plates which are not subject to safeguard duty. According to TechNova, "this anomaly is creating a disadvantage for Indian plate manufacturers."