Stainless steel industry seeks customs duty increase

03 October 2016

The domestic stainless steel industry has requested the government to increase the customs duty to discourage cheap imports from China. Indian stainless steel associations on Thursday met steel minister Chaudhary Birender Singh and appraised him of the issues plaguing the industry.

The Rs.3.1 trillion debt-laden Indian steel industry is reeling under financial stress due to a fall in demand and cheap imports from China. This has led to 27% of loans to the industry becoming distressed.

“The biggest issue currently being faced by the industry is huge surge in imports especially from China. It has caused a distortion in the domestic market and it is further contributing to the deteriorating condition of the stainless steel industry. Hence, we have requested to the government to increase import duty on stainless steel from 7.5% to 12.5%,” said a senior industry executive requesting anonymity.

This comes in the backdrop of the National Democratic Alliance government extending protectionist measures for the domestic steel industry. On 4 August, the government extended minimum import price on 66 types of steel products ranging from $341-752 per tonne for two months till 4 October.

According to industry estimates of around 572,068 million tonne (MT) of India’s stainless steel imports during April-August 2016, imports from China accounted for more than a half or 305,714 MT.

Source – VCCircle