India has begun an anti-subsidy investigation into flat stainless steel products imported from Indonesia, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a posting.

The probe resulted from a petition from the Indian Stainless Steel Development Association, Jindal Stainless, Jindal Stainless (Hisar) and Jindal Stainless Steelway, seeking a levy of countervailing duties on the imports.

A countervailing duty is a customs duty placed on goods that have received government subsidies in the originating or exporting country.

“All forms of the product are within the scope of the product under consideration,” the ministry said, but razor blade grade steel and coin blanks used to make monetary coins are excluded.

The investigation period spans April 2018 to March 2019, which represents the Indian financial year.

During the year, India imported about 227,740 mt of finished steel products from Indonesia, up from 107,040 mt the previous year, data from India’s Ministry of Steel showed. Of the total, alloy/stainless steel products made up about 73,000 mt.

The anti-subsidy probe comes amid ongoing anti-dumping investigations into flat-rolled stainless steel products from 15 countries/regions that began early July 2019. The anti-dumping probe covers China, the European Union, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the US and Vietnam.

Also, there are market concerns that Indonesia may ship more stainless steel products to India after China imposed temporary antidumping measures on imports of stainless steel billet and hot-rolled stainless steel plate from the European Union, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia, effective March 23.

Indonesia is home to a stainless steel complex operated by China’s Tsingshan Group at Morowali, Indonesia, which has a production capacity of about 3 million mt/year.

The country plans to turn the Morowali into a major stainless steel production area with about 4 million mt/year of capacity, which would make Indonesia the world’s second-biggest producer of the metal.

Source: Hellenic Shipping News