Comments
Giving relief to domestic steel producers against cheap in-bound shipments, the government today imposed a minimum import price (MIP) on 173 steel products ranging between $341 to $752 per tonne.
“MIP is introduced against 173 HS Codes (iron and steel products),” the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in a notification.
On ingots and billets, blooms and slabs, the MIP reads $362, $352 and $341 per tonne, respectively. On flat-rolled products of iron or non-alloy steel of a width of 600 mm or more and hot-rolled one, the minimum prices will be $445 and $500 on different items.
Similarly, on flat-rolled products of iron or non-alloy steel of a width of 600 mm or more and cold-rolled one, the figure stood at $560 per tonne.
On products like corrugated flat-rolled products of iron/non-alloy steel, MIP ranged between $643 and $752.
Further flat-rolled products of other alloy steel of a width of 600 mm or more, MIP reads between $445 and $752.
The minimum import price will remain in place for six months only. However, it will not apply on imports under the advance authorisation scheme and high-grade pipes used in the petroleum and natural gas industry.
While the major steel producers hailed the government’s decision, the user industry cried foul, saying it would impact prices of raw materials.
“We welcome this initiative. This measure will ensure a level-playing field to the Indian steel industry which has been adversely affected by dumped imports from various sources. We hope that this will suitably address the concern of surging cheap imports,” Shivramkrishnan, Chief Commercial Office, Essar Steel India, said.
Taking a similar view, the Indian Stainless Steel Development Association said this may slightly help the ailing steel sector.
However, it expressed disappointment that stainless steel products have been left out of the ambit of the MIP mechanism.
Welcoming the development, the Indian Steel Association Secretary General Sanak Mishra said this will provide some relief to the steel industry in the face of a large volume of cheap imports at predatory prices.
Jindal Steel & Power said the industry has gone through “very challenging times and this development augurs well“.
On the other hand, H L Bhardwaj, Secretary General, Federation of Industries of India, said: “MIP will inflate prices of raw materials. Engineering exports, start-up projects as well as ‘Make in India’ will also suffer.”
Furthermore, the notification said imports/shipments under the letter of credit already entered into with foreign suppliers will also be exempted from this decision.
India’s imports of non-alloy steel rose 29.6 per cent between April-December 2015 to 6.34 million tonne. It’s total consumption of non-alloy steel stands at 53.166 million tonne.
On Friday, Aruna Sundarajan, Secretary, Ministry for Steel said the MIP was an interim measure.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.