Steel producers to benefit from import curb: India Rating

The government’s recent move to curb imports of both alloy and non-alloy steel products is expected to help increase the realisations of domestic producers of these goods, a rating agency said today.

The government hiked the import duty on non-alloy steel products by 2.5 per cent as domestic producers struggle to cope with surging cheap imports from China and South Korea, among other countries.

Non-alloy steel flats now command an import duty of 10 per cent, while non-alloy steel longs attract a duty of 7.5 per cent.

Anti-dumping duty on some alloy steel products is directionally positive in the long-term, India Rating and Research (Ind-Ra) said in a report.

The import restriction is expected to help increase the realisations of domestic alloy and non-alloy steel producers, it added.

The Finance Ministry has imposed anti-dumping duties on the import of hot-rolled stainless steel (HR SS) flats of grade 304 originating from China, Malaysia and South Korea.

The duties imposed are in the range of $180 per tonne for imports from Korea to $316 a tonne for shipment from Malaysia.

The alloy steel sector, of which stainless steel is a major part, has been particularly vulnerable as imports have averaged 25 per cent of the domestic output over the last few years despite having capacity utilisation of 50-60 per cent, according to the report.

The non-alloy steel sector, however, has fared better where imports have been nearly 8 per cent of domestic production with capacity utilisation of 80-85 per cent.

The quantum of imports of alloy steel products has always been higher as the domestic price per tonne of alloy steel is significantly higher than that of non-alloy steel, the report said.

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