Talking about the issues affecting the Indian steel industry to CNBC-TV18's Anhsu Sharma on the sidelines of the National Conference and Annual Session of CII, TV Narendran, managing director, Tata Steel India and South East Asia said steel imports were still impacting the industry adversely. The industry is waiting for steps from the government that would address this problem, he added.
The government in the Budget kept the effective import duty on steel products unchanged in spite of enhancing the peak rate to 15%. Indian steel industry is already reeling under the pressure of unrestrained dumping of steel with Japan, Korea, China, and Russia constituting around 75 percent of imports into India. The industry is hoping for the dumping of the steel to be arrested.
Below is the transcript of the conversation
Q: Was there any disappointment that you did not hear anything on steel import in the Budget session and how is it impacting the steel sector?
A: It is impacting us significantly. There is a lot of steel coming in particularly from China which we are concerned about. The government is looking at it. So, we are waiting for some decision to come.
Q: What about the auction participation? How soon do you expect the government to come out with the auction process?
A: I don’t know, we are waiting to see. Coal auctions were already there, we did not participate in those mines, lets us wait and see what is next.
Source: Money Control