Govt imposes anti-dumping duty on HR steel products from 6 nations

With an aim to protect domestic manufacturers from cheap imports, the government has imposed an anti-dumping duty on certain hot-rolled steel products from six countries-China, Japan, Korea, Russia, Brazil and Indonesia. The duty will be the difference between the landed value and the prescribed value, which is $474 per tonne and $557 per tonne, respectively. 

A duty of $474 a tonne was imposed on import of HR flat products of alloy or non-alloy steel of a width up to 2,100 mm and thickness up to 25 mm from Korea and Japan. A similar anti-dumping duty was slapped on import of similar products from China. Imports of the same from Indonesia, Russia and Brazil too attracted $474 per tonne duty. Hot rolled flat products of alloy or non-alloy steel not in coils (commonly known as sheets and plates) of a width up to 4950 mm and thickness upto 150 mm imported from the six nations would attract $ 557 per ton anti-dumping duty. 

The restrictive duty was imposed on the recommendation of the Directorate General of Anti-Dumping (DGAD) and it would be in force till February 7, 2017. DGAD has come to the provisional conclusion that the subject goods have been exported to India from the subject countries below normal value (and) the domestic industry has suffered material injury on account of subject imports from the subject countries. Also, DGAD felt that the injury has been caused by the dumped imports of the subject goods from the subject countries. India is also likely to impose anti- dumping duty on imports of certain cold-rolled steel products from four countries - China, Japan, Korea and Ukraine.

The government had recently extended the minimum import price (MIP) on 66 steel products for a period of two months as against 173 items earlier. The move has evoked a sharp reaction from engineering exporters as it makes their input costs high and renders them uncompetitive in the global market.