The steel ministry has brought more steel grades coldreduced (CR) low
carbon sheets and strips, harddrawn wire and coldrolled strips under the Quality Control
(QC) order.
The move is expected to check the rampant import of cheap steel products into the country,
especially from China, Japan and South Korea.
Under the Steel and Steel Products (Quality Control) (Second Amendment) Order, 2016,
which amended the Steel and Steel Products (QC) Order, 2015, the Bureau of Indian
Standards (BIS) has increased the grades of CR lowcarbon, CR strips and harddrawn steel
wire, a fresh notification said.
This is the second amendment. The original notification, which was first published in
December 2015, was earlier amended in March 2016.
Under the latest amendment, the ministry has included all grades of harddrawn steel wire, certain grades of CR low carbon steel sheets
and strips and those of CR steel strips.
To ensure only quality steel is produced or imported into the country, the government notified Steel and Steel Products (QC) Orders, 2012
in March 2012 and Steel and Steel Products (QC) Orders, 2015.
To check imports, India had slapped a minimum import price (MIP) on 173 steel grades in February this year, but shrank the list to 66 while
extending the safeguard measures in August.
Now, it is bringing the steel products excluded from the MIP under the antidumping duty ambit.
The positive impact of various safeguard measures taken to check surge in imports is being reflected in inbound shipments of the metal
declining 34.5 per cent to 3.01 million tonnes (mt) in AprilAugust of 201617 compared with the yearago period.
Import in August fell 36 per cent to 0.62 mt over August 2015 and 2.2 per cent over July 2016.
SOurce: ET