India imposes anti-dumping duty on certain stainless steel products

After investigation into cheap imports of some steel items as HR coils, the government has imposed provisional anti-dumping duty on import of certain stainless steel products from China, Thailand, the US, Spain, Korea and France in order to safeguard the interests of domestic industry.

Import of cold-rolled flat stainless steel products, mainly used by the automotive industry, will attract a minimum $12.74 and a maximum $1,823 per tonne levy over the next six months, ie till 21 October 2009, as per a notification issued by the finance ministry.

The notification was issued by the finance ministry as per the recommendations of the directorate-general of anti-dumping and allied duties (DGAD).

''The domestic industry had suffered material injury, the injury had been caused by the dumped imports from subject countries," the notification said.

The directorate general of anti-dumping and allied duties (DGAD), the designated authority in the department of commerce, had undertaken a review of stainless steel imports from China following a complaint from Jindal Stainless Ltd ( now JSL Ltd) over dumping of cheap stainless steel.

"This was required in the wake of surge in imports. We have enough capacity to meet the domestic requirement," said  N C Mathur, director (corporate affairs) of JSL LTD welcoming the government move.

JSL Ltd, meanwhile, is reported to have suffered heavily due to cheap imports of stainless steel. The company lost multi-crore orders for the modernisation of bus shelters in Chennai city as the Chennai Corporation decided to cancel the work order issued to a New Delhi-based private agency.

The contract, awarded on a build, operate and transfer basis, was originally planned for a period of eight years. But, six months after the corporation awarded the work order to the JSL, nothing seems to have moved. JSL blames it on administrative lapses in the Chennai Corporation.

The Indian impost comes after the European Union backtracked from imposing tariffs on stainless steel from China, Taiwan and South Korea after the recession ended worries over price undercutting.

The European Commission closed an inquiry into whether Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean exporters sold cold rolled flat products in the EU below cost.