In a bid to support the domestic steel industry suffering from cheap imports, the government has decided to extend further the Minimum Import Price (MIP) regime on 19 colour-coated and galvanised steel products by another two months till February 4, 2017. The 19 products include semi-finished products of iron or non-alloyed steel, flat-rolled products of different widths, bars and rods. The MIP ranges between $643-752 per tonne.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade, under the ministry of commerce and industry, notified that “As per the applicable laws and powers conferred to the department by the government of India, the period of MIP has been extended on 19 steel products by two months till 4 February.”
Government in February had imposed MIP, ranging between $341 to $752 per tonne on 173 steel products for a period of six months, in order to guard domestic steel producers against cheap in-bound shipments. Later, in August it decided to extend the MIP on 66 steel products for a period of two months as against 173 items earlier.
Indian Steel Association had asked the government to extend MIP on certain products by saying its imposition has marginally improved the industry’s viability after a long period of subdued prices. Accelerating imports at predatory prices from steel surplus countries like China, Japan and Korea have been a major concern area for the domestic industry since September 2014. However, despite repeated pleas by the industry, the steel ministry was not in favour of the extension of the MIP for 30 semi-finished products such as slabs and billets, in October as imports of these items have been negligible. Also, there are fears of huge backlash in the international arena from WTO non-compatible measures like MIP.