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A week after launching investigation for levying anti-dumping duty on hot-rolled coil, the Directorate General of Anti-Dumping & Allied Duties has launched a similar process for a slew of other steel imports including cold-rolled coils.
The investigation will reveal whether imports from China, Japan, Korea and Ukraine have hurt Indian steel companies. Prima-facie, DGAD has found sufficient evidence of dumping of steel products by these countries which has caused significant injury to the domestic steel industry.
The products that are covered under the investigation include cold rolled, cold reduced flat steel products of alloy and non-alloy steel besides other alloy steel of all widths and thickness, including cold rolled full hard. The import trend between July and December last year would be considered during the investigation.
The steel products under investigation find applications in industries such as automotive, tractors, bicycles, appliances, furniture, electrical panels, packaging, drums, barrels, general engineering, substrate for coating, colour coating galvanising, metal-coating, and tin plate.
The investigation is based on an application filed by Steel Authority of India, JSW Steel, Essar Steel India and JSW Steel Coated Products.
Cold Rolled steel imports from the four countries have increased 80 per cent to 1.7 million between July-December, 2015, against 0.94 million tonnes imported in the financial year 2013-14. Incidentally, the average import prices have declined 45 per cent to $400 a tonne in December from $727 in FY’14.
H Shivramkrishnan, Chief Commercial Officer, Essar Steel, said the investigation launched is a very significant step taken by the department on the petition filed by domestic industry.
Some of the importers have also imported HR coil under the garb of CR rolled full hard steel to circumvent punitive duty imposed by the Centre , he said.
Last September, the Centre imposed a provisional safeguard import duty on some steel products for 200 days and extended it till March 2018 to protect domestic manufacturers from cheap imports. The Centre imposed a Minimum Import Price as an additional measure of protection in February for six months, while retaining the safeguard duty.
The anti-dumping duty once finalised will be a permanent fixture for longer tenure unlike the present safeguard duty and Minimum Import Price.
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