Safeguard Duty on HRC Imports: Public Hearing Updates

Affected parties in Safeguard duty case states how imposition of duty on imported HRC is making India non-competitive at global level.

Public hearing on safeguard duty case scheduled on Monday saw strong opposition of duty from MNCs having their production units in India. This included companies like POSCO, Maruti Suzuki, and Arcelor Mittal to name a few.

Representations were also made from associations like BIMA (Bombay Iron & Steel Merchant Association), CORSMA (Cold Rolling Steel Manufacturers Association), and FII (Federation of Industries of India).

In the representation made to DG Safeguards, the affected parties raised their concern as how safeguard duty on HRC is indirectly leading to increased imports of other steel products such as CRC, coated steel, pipes and tubes.

Another concern raised in the representations is how HRC is key raw material for many engineering industry and with imposition of safeguard duty, government’s ‘Make in India’ campaign will fail to achieve its mark.

POSCO argued that it imported about 30% of India’s total HRC imports between May’15-Sep’14 for its own captive use and not for domestic sale as local plants in India were unable to supply to it the desired HRC quantity and quality. Thus if this quantity is excluded from total steel imports, the major concern of surge is imports raised by petitioners in not valid.

DG Safeguards have asked the affected parties to make their written representation by November 23 while petitioners have to reciprocate to the points raised in public hearing by December 4. However the final decision on duty case will be announced by the government by Feb’16.

“Safeguard duty on HRC is portraying negative image of India at global trade level. Imposing duty on cheap imports is making Indian steel industry uncompetitive”, quoted one of the BIMA member.

On Sep 15’ 15, Indian government imposed 20% safeguard duty on imports of ‘HotRolled Flat products of non-alloy and other alloy Steel in coils of width of 600mm or more’.

* Affected parties list includes 50 private/government entities and associations.