Earlier, in June this year, the government had imposed anti-dumping duty on certain category of HR flat products of stainless steel having a width of 600-1,250 mm, originating from China, Malaysia and Korea in the range between $108/ton and $ 316 a ton. During the last month, steel imports dropped down by 6.9 % to 0.76 mt tons, its first declension in around eight-month period. The anti-dumping duty announced today is an admission of the fact that importing countries have managed to beat the safeguard duty.

The steel ministry had asked for 35 to 40 products including pig iron, semi-finished products and cold-rolled coils. Domestic steel firms, which have taken massive loaning sums for capacity extension, are under rigorous pressure as cheap imports are hitting their domestic share. "On paper this step looks good, but in the long run it is not going to help unless the government removes the restrictions on width", Indian Stainless Steel Development Association President N.C. Mathur told Reuters.

 India has imposed an anti-dumping duty of up to about 57% on imports of cold-rolled steel from China, South Korea, the EU, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand and the US, in a bid to protect a domestic industry that is being hit hard by a surge in imports. It will be in place for five years, according to a... "Though the volume of imports has declined after anti-dumping duties were imposed five years ago in 2010, dumping of cold rolled flat products has been continuing from many producing countries", the notification said. "The dumping is likely to continue and the performance of the domestic industry is likely to deteriorate, should the present anti-dumping duty is revoked", it said. The highest duty has been levied on steel imports from China at 57.39 per cent, followed by the European Union at 52.56 percent. Imports from Thailand will have the least duty imposition of 4.58 percent.

Source: OceanSidePost.com