KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Tin Can Manufacturers Association (MTCMA) wants the government to reject the proposal by Perusahaan SadurTimah Malaysia Bhd (Perstima) to impose anti-dumping duty on tinplate import.

Chairman of MTCMA’s Committee for Anti-Dumping, Datuk Anthony See Teow Guan, said there was no strong basis for the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) to impose the duty as Perstima, being the only company in Malaysia to produce electrolytic tinplate, has a strong market here.

“Perstima’s monopoly has led tinplate locally to be priced US$100 to US$200 higher per metric tonne, forcing local tin can makers to import tinplate from South Korea, China, Vietnam, Germany and India at an average global price of US$1,100 to US$1,200,” he told a media briefing here yesterday.

See said the sole tinplate producer in Malaysia, feeling the pinch, had proposed to MITI to impose the anti-dumping duty on electrolytic tinplates which were the raw materials used to produce tin.

He said Perstima was not only selling the raw material at a higher price, they also planned to further increase it.

“If the anti-dumping duty is implemented, the end-users or consumers will feel the pinch as the prices of canned goods will increase by at least 10 sen per can,” he said.

Meanwhile, MTCMA vice-president, See Chee Tat, told Bernama if the government was serious about putting the people’s interest first they would not even consider the anti-dumping duty as it would indirectly burden the consumers.

“If MITI and Perstima are adamant in going ahead with the proposal, we will consider producing our own tinplate,” he said.

See said MTCMA was in discussions with several interested parties to open their own plant.

He said, apart from that, other initiatives would be include considering a law suit against Perstima based on the anti-trust law. — Bernama