India - Us Soda Ash Imports Blocked

An allegation that American Natural Soda Ash Corp (Ansac) is acting as an export cartel for sale of soda ash to India has been upheld by the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission. It has ordered the six US companies which form Ansac not to export soda ash to India either directly or indirectly as a single entity. Individual trading action by the separate companies will still be allowed. The cartel was ruled to be breaking the MRTP Act. India's higher production costs for soda ash make it difficult for domestic producers to compete against US imports. Indian production capacity is 1.63m tonnes/year, which is almost sufficient to meet domestic demand of 1.67m tonnes/y. Thus, domestic production would be affected by imports.