Some relief to Indian Wire rod manufacturers, struggling with rising imports from China. Indian Steel Ministry after consulting with BIS has made some amendments in 2nd quality order for Steel & Steel products issued in 2012 and also amended in 2014.
The amendments cover wider range of classification for Wire rod, which will require mandatory Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification. Indian Wire rod manufacturers highlighted that lot of imports, which were being made under category that did not require any quality certificate by the Indian government.
According to Indian customs data, it was observed that imports of Wire rod, which were not covered by BIS stood at 232,000 MT (approx) during Apr-Sep’14. The new HS Code that are brought under BIS Norms are 72279090, 72283029, 72286099, 72285090 and 72286012.
Wire Rod Import since Apr’14
| HS Code |
Apr’14 |
May’14 |
Jun’14 |
Jul’14 |
Aug’14 |
Sep’14 |
Total |
| 72279090 | 12,335 | 23,997 | 26,520 | 48,443 | 19,868 | 64,332 | 195,495 |
| 72283029 | 2,746 | 4,131 | 2,038 | 4,028 | 2,924 | 5,818 | 21,685 |
| 72285090 | 349 | 237 | 518 | 497 | 145 | 686 | 2,432 |
| 72286012 | 1,729 | 1,370 | 1,731 | 1,842 | 717 | 3,342 | 10,731 |
| 72286099 | 743 | 298 | 273 | 338 | 350 | 509 | 2,511 |
| Total | 17,902 | 30,034 | 31,080 | 55,148 | 24,004 | 74,687 | 232,854 |
|
China Origin (Approx) 75% |
1,75,000 | ||||||
Currently, Wire rod offers from China are assessed at around USD 450/MT CFR India, which is equal to INR 30,500-31,000/MT ex-port prices after including import duty of 5% and port handling charges of approx INR 1,500/MT (CVD & SAD extra).
Although, manufacturers believe that this will restrict imports for a while till Chinese steel mills get a certification from BIS. Manufacturers are demanding an imposition of safe guard duty on imports of Wire rod.
Recently, some imported Rebars from China were not cleared by Indian customs after Indian government made BIS certification for imports. Against which importers have filed a case in Bombay High Court, which is expected to be heard in next week.
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