The Finance Minister has bought some cheers for beleaguered Flat steel industry by increasing the import duty on Stainless Steel (SS) Coils by 2.5%. The imports duty on SS Coils now stands at 7.5%.
In conversation with SteelMint, the president of Indian Stainless Steel Development Association (ISSDA), Mr. N C Mathur said,
“It’s a welcome move for the industry. We thank the finance minister who had addressed the underlying concerns of the Stainless Steel industry in the budget. We are optimistic that the ministry will gradually look into the concerns relating to imports of raw materials like Nickel & SS Scrap as well.”
The Indian Stainless Steel industry has an installed capacity of 4.5 MnT, whereas the production was only around 2.6 MnT. The industry was battling with cheaper imports from countries like China, Korea & Japan. It is interesting to note that countries like China & Brazil imposes 10% & 14% import duty respectively on stainless steel, whereas India only imposed 5%. The increase in import duty to 7.5% will make a level playing field for many players in the industry.
The industry depends on 60-70% of recycled products and hence the industry association advocated removal of duties on imported SS Scrap also. Stainless Steel Scraps are usually not available in the domestic market and manufacturers often rely on imports. The industry imported around 0.4MnT last fiscal to meet its requirements. Mr Mathur further added,
“We also proposed to reduce the import duties on Stainless Steel Scrap owing to its low availability in the domestic market. Dealing with the volatility in raw material prices like nickel, also remain our priority, which is to be addressed by the industry”.
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