Steel industry cheers as govt imposes anti-dumping duty

Deepak Kumar | The Dollar Business Bureau 

  The government on Friday imposed a five-year anti-dumping duty on imports of some steel products from China and other countries to protect the domestic industry. The Indian steel producers have welcomed the announcement. However, they also expected some additional measures to stop flow of cheap imports from China and make domestic industry more viable.  “The government is now contemplating the minimum support price (MSP), below which imports can’t be made. They have already announced some drafts. We are expecting some more clarifications on it next week,” C V Raghavan, Director of Finance at Ferro Alloys Corporation Ltd (FACOR), told The Dollar Business. “Chinese are dropping their steel prices further to mitigate the anti-dumping duty impact on the Indian market. Therefore, the Indian government is coming out with a proposal that there will be a minimum import price below which one can’t import,” Raghavan said. The fresh anti-dumping duty, ranging from minimum 4.6% for imports from Thailand to maximum 57.39% from China, has been imposed to curb shipments of cold-rolled flat stainless steel products. According to the notification from the central board of excise and customs (CBEC), the imports from the European Union will face duties ranging from 29.41% to 52.56%, while shipments from countries like South Africa, Korea, and the USA will have to pay anti-dumping duties of 36.91%, 13.44% and 9.47% respectively. There has been a proliferation of cheap imports of steel, majorly from China, the European Union, the USA and South Africa and it has deteriorated the domestic steel market to a great extent. Earlier this week, major steel companies such as Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL), Essar Steel India Ltd. JSW Steel Ltd. and Jindal Steel & Power Ltd. requested the government to impose a 20% safeguard duty for a period of four years. These companies stressed that the dumping was likely to continue and the performance of the domestic industry was likely to deteriorate further. Therefore, the recommended anti-dumping duty should be revoked. In September, the government had taken a similar measure when it increased the anti-dumping duty on steel imports to 20%. But the move failed to make any significant impact and the inward shipments of steel products surged by 27.3% to 1.183 million tonnes (MT) in October over September 2015.  

December 12, 2015  | 02.30pm IST