Chinese press makers could do nothing but regret India's decision to impose antidumping duties on injection molding machines from China since last May. But the question is how their market share in that country has been replaced.

Apparently, Taiwanese machinery firms are among those who benefit from this policy. Taiwan's Chuan Lih Fa Machinery Works Co. Ltd. saw its market share rise in India in 2009, which helped the company hold its overall sales during the crisis.

Other major injection press exporters, such as Japan and Germany, probably have benefited as well, although I haven't found solid stats to back up the theory. Maybe presses from these countries are in a price range that don't directly compete with Indian or Chinese machines.

I'm most curious about whether Indian local press makers have found the antidumping action useful or valuable.

The only company that actively called for the antidumping probe was L&T Demag Plastic Machinery Ltd. of Chennai, although the government also mentioned three non-applicant companies -- Ferromatik Milacron India Ltd., Windsor Machines Ltd. and Electronica Machine Tools Ltd. -- when trying to justify the action.

The ownership structure of L&T Demag Plastic Machinery Ltd. changed on March 31, 2009. Larsen & Toubro Ltd. bought out joint venture partner Sumitomo (SHI) Demag Plastics Machinery GmbH's share and made the operation a wholly owned entity: L&T Plastics Machinery Ltd.

I imagine that L&T is a poster child of India's fast growing manufacturing sector. For instance, the Mumbai-based conglomerate helped build India's first nuclear powered submarine, which launched in July.

L&T chairman A.M. Naik was quoted in a Machinist article as saying, "Over the last four decades, L&T has played a crucial pioneering role in building India's strategic sectors by successfully executing several technology-intensive and challenging projects." Mr. Naik himself made BusinessWeek's "India's 50 most powerful people 2009."

L&T Plastics Machinery Ltd. claims production capacity exceeds 1,000 machines per year, according to its Web site.