In a move by government to control cheap steel imports, measures like safeguard duty on other steel products and minimum floor price (MFP) likely to be anounced soon.
As reported in media, Steel Secretary of India has confirmed that after HRC, safeguard duty is likely to be extended to other steel products of value chain.
In order to deal with increasing pressure of cheap imports especially from China, government announced 20% provisional safeguard duty for 200 days on HRC in Sep’15.
However this duty did not help much in controlling influx of cheap imports as HRC prices have fallen by about USD 100/MT since safeguard duty investigation was started. The landed cost of HRC imports from China is still cheaper than domestic prices by INR 2,000-2,500/MT.
Also post safeguard duty, China started exporting steel to India in the form of CRC, HR plates, pipes and tubes. Thus SAIL along with other steel majors such as JSW and Essar Steel have applied for imposition of safeguard on other steel products like plates, wire rod, HR sheets, and CRC.
As per the Steel Secretary, steel imports of India are likely to reach 14-15 MnT mark this fiscal year which was 9.31 MnT in 2014-15 and 5.45 MnT in 2013-14. Thus government is looking out for comprehensive measures to protect domestic steel industry.
Along with safeguard duty on other steel products, measures such as imposition of minimum floor price (MFP) are also likely to be introduced. MFP is a minimum price beyond which steel cannot be imported to India from any country and it usually covers the cost of production.
As per media reports there are chances that safeguard duty on HRC will be extended beyond 200 days. The final decision on various measures are likely to be announced in the months of Dec’15 and Jan’16.
Leave a Reply