In order to provide protection to domestic steel manufacturers, India’s trade ministry has planned anti-dumping duty ranging from USD 180-306/MT for some industrial grade Stainless steel imported from nations like China, South Korea and Malaysia.
The trade ministry has taken this step based on long investigation carried on the basis of complaints filed by Jindal Steel Limited. The ministry has found that the Indian Industry is combating with ‘material injury due to such dumped imports’.
President of the Indian Stainless Steel Development Association, NC Mathur stated, “The grades subject to the dumping duty can cost USD 1,270-2,070/MT and are used basically to make equipment for dairy, oil refinery and railways.”
He further added, about 1 MnT of Stainless steel is consumed by India every year and over 40% of material is mainly imported from China. China’s annual Stainless steel surplus is over 4 MnT in contrast to India’s annual demand of about 2.6 MnT, resulting in cheap supplies to the country from China.
Due to rising import of steel from other countries, profits of many steel giants in India like Tata Steel, JSW Steel and Kalyani Steels are under pressure. Jindal Stainless shares ended up 10% at INR 40.50 on Wednesday on the duty recommendations, their highest closing price in 2.5 months.
Mr. Mathur urged that the steel industry also welcomed the government’s decision to provide for an increase in import duty on steel to 15% without any major procedural delays. Earlier, the government had set a limit of 10%, while, the actual duties are below that.
The provision will allow the government to raise the duty whenever it wants just with a notification, Mathur commented.
Source: Reuters
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