Indian government to ensure no steel products are imported in the guise of finished products

The Dollar Business Bureau

The Union Minister for Steel Chaudhary Birender Singh on Friday said the government will ensure that steel products are not brought into the country in the guise of utensils or finished products.

“We are keeping an eye on the import of steel in guise of finished products. We will not allow such kind of practice even in trade,” Union Minister of Steel Chaudhary Birender Singh told reporters after addressing a meeting of the National Steel Consumers’ Council here.

He stated that the government has been successful in reducing steel imports by 37% which were mostly from China in FY 2017.This happened due to India's tough anti-dumping measures and also due to the withdrawal of the Minimum Import Price of Steel.

“The government has made a budgetary allocation of Rs 4 lakh crore for infrastructure this year. We have to ensure that the maximum steel produced in the country is used domestically,” the Minister said.

The Steel sector has been growing at a CAGR of about 7%, the country's steel exports registered 102% growth from 4.08 MT in 2015-16 to 8.20 MT in 2016-17.

Since the country's per capita consumption of steel was relatively low around 64 kg it has to increase to 160 kg as the government plans to increase the production of steel to 300 million tons by 2030-31. The National Steel Policy 2017 aims to make India self suffecient in Steel production. The Policy also contemplates adequate local manufacturing to mee the demand for high-grade automotive steel, electrical steel, alloys and special steel by the same year.

“We are going to increase the country’s steel consumption rate in a big way. As the Centre has earmarked Rs 4 lakh crore for the infrastructure sector, the steel sector should take advantage of it to enhance the consumption rate,” Singh said adding, the Railways alone have plans to spend Rs 1.32 lakh crore in its expansion.

Of the Rs 4 lakh crore earmarked for infrastructure sector, the steel sector can easily get 10 per cent of its share, which is estimated to be Rs 40,000 crore.