Anti-dumping duty on 21 flat-rolled products of non-alloy steel such as corrugated sheets are in the offing, steel secretary Aruna Sharma said, adding that the notified provisional anti-dumping duty on 15 wire rod of alloy or non-alloy products would be implemented soon.
Anti-dumping duty on 21 flat-rolled products of non-alloy steel such as corrugated sheets are in the offing, steel secretary Aruna Sharma said, adding that the notified provisional anti-dumping duty on 15 wire rod of alloy or non-alloy products would be implemented soon.
Following the imposition of minimum import price (MIP) on 173 steel products in the range of $341-752 per tonne for six months in February, aimed at containing imports, the government in August imposed anti-dumping duty on 107 of these products and extended MIP on the remaining 66 items twice each time for two months in August and in October.
“There is no strong evidence (of imports causing injury) on 30 semi-finished products, including TMT bars. In any case, MIP is there till December 4,” Sharma said.
In September, Directorate General of Anti Dumping (DGAD) & Allied Duties recommended provisional anti-dumping duty on imports of wire rods. For some Chinese companies, the duty recommended was the difference between landed price of imports and a reference price of $499 a tonne, while for others the difference between landed price and $538 per tonne.
As reported earlier by FE, the steel ministry did not recommend any tariff measure for 30 semi-finished products such as slabs and billets, mostly used by secondary producers, as imports of these items have been “negligible”. Currently, MIP on these items is in the range of $341-364 per tonne. The domestic industry has already sought protection in the form of anti-dumping duty on the 21 products of coated sheets where MIP is in place now.
Steel imports to India increased to 12.7 MT, at an average of over 1 MT a month, in 2015-16 from 10.2 MT in 2014-15 and 5.7 MT in 2013-14. China, Japan and Korea accounted for three-fourths of total steel imports last fiscal. Once the dumping duties are imposed, the MIPs become redundant. India has been under pressure in multilateral fora to remove the MIPs seen as an outdated measure that is WTO-incompatible. Shortly after MIP was imposed, steel imports started falling and the domestic industry’s sales and margins picked up. But after correcting positively till May, steel prices became very volatile.
SOurce:FInancial Express