India to Review Anti-dumping Duty on Chinese Injection Presses

China market is huge, but heavily depends on export orders. If the companies continue to get export orders, they keep sourcing machine from us," Lee said.

A big order placed at the end of 2012 by a prominent vendor for Videocon Industries Ltd. helped improve Huarong's sales in India last year.

Huarong entered the India market in 2010 and recorded growth of about 10 percent growth in 2011.

In an effort to rekindle growth in the subcontinent, Huarong has introduced vertical injection presses in India.

"We were selling only the horizontal presses until last year, which are affected by the weak Indian rupee against the dollar. Besides, competition is more in the horizontal presses from local as well as overseas suppliers," Lee said.

"Few other Taiwanese companies are supplying the vertical lines in India, therefore, less competition and bright growth prospects," Lee explained.

Huarong opened an Indian headquarters in Delhi in 2012, and it has regional sales and service operations in Pune, Ahmedabad and Bangalore.

Another Taiwanese press supplier, Jon Wai Machinery Works Co. Ltd., sold about 80 presses in 2012, down from its annual average of about 100.

"The first half was slow last year but the auto parts industry picks up in the second half and that improves our sales," said Jon Wai's Harrison Chun. Also, India's currency appears to have stabilized.

"Therefore, buyers have started placing orders again as they could not postpone the sourcing anymore," Chun said.

The company's overall sales also suffered from the financial meltdown in Europe, Chun said.

Jon Wai hopes to regain the lost ground this year. The company is seeing growth in western and southern India thanks to investment in the automotive sector.

Malaysian press suppliers gained ground in recent years thanks to a free trade agreement with India.

"We are selling on an average about 100 injection molding lines every year in India," said Han Changhua of Klang, Malaysia-based ESM Precise Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd.

"We are pricewise competitive thanks to [the free-trade agreement], as our machinery is not levied with a 7.5 percent import duty." The company hopes to sell 150 machines in India this year.

ESM has sold presses as large as 2,300 metric tons of clamping force in India, but said 400-ton models are more popular in the region.