As per sources, Indian government appointed panel has approved imposition of provisional 20% safeguard duty on hot rolled products for a period of 200 days.
On September 9, Directorate General (DG) of Safeguards recommended imposition of safeguard duty in the light of increased imports from China, Japan, and Korea.
Recommendation was made for safeguard duty imposition on hot rolled flat products of non-alloy and other alloy steel in coils at widths of 600mm or more, classifiable under chapter 72 of the Customs Tariff Act 1975, under tariff heading 7208 and tariff item 72253090 with certain exceptions.
“The domestic HRC prices increased in the range of INR 700-1,000/MT just following the news of safeguard duty recommendation last week.” said a dealer based in Delhi.
“Safeguard duty if imposed, imported HRC prices will increase in the range of USD 50-70/MT.” said an importer based in Mumbai.
Though in the month of August, Indian government increased import duty to 12.5% from 10% it was applicable only on imports from China.
The import duty on Japanese and Korean products is about 1.25% and 0.80% due to the FTA (Foreign Trade Agreement) signed with both the countries.
Safeguard duty will be applicable on imports from all the countries including Japan and Korea. After imposition of 20% safeguard duty, the effective duty on Chinese imports will be around 35% whereas it will be around 21-22% on Japanese and Korean imports.
Leave a Reply