Rising export of Flat product from Japan, Korea and China is causing trouble to domestic mill. The sector has been demanding a higher import duty, as recent months have seen a lot of cheaper steel finding its way into India.
HR Coil (under Ch-7208) in Jan-13 Qty 3.67 lakh tons import and in Feb-13 Qty 1.83 lakh tons is being imported in India. Similarly CR Coil (Ch-7209) import attract Qty 1.15 lakh and Galvanized Flat product (Ch-7210) attract Qty 1.97 lakh in Feb-13 that in total bring Flat import to 5 lakh tons in February 2013.
A senior official from a large steel company, said, “Imports from China, (South) Korea and Japan have been on the rise and we have been asking the government to remove steel from the FTAs (free trade agreements). As a part of our budget wish list, we asked for import duties but the demand has gone unanswered.”
Whereas importer says, ‘International prices are presently unfavorable to import as China HR Coil is offering at $620 and Japan at $630-640 FOB to respective ports, so if it attracts less duty also its not viable to compete with domestic price of SAIL.‘ Indian import might see a drastic fall in coming months and domestic demand should improve, he added further
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