India slaps anti-dumping duty on stainless steel from China, S Korea and Malaysia

India has imposed anti-dumping duties ranging from $180 to $316 per tonne for some industrial-grade stainless steel imported from China, Malaysia and South Korea in a bid to stem surging imports and protect the domestic industry.

The finance ministry's move to impose anti-dumping duty on import of 'hot rolled austenitic stainless steel flat products of 304 series' from People's Republic of China, the Republic of Korea and Malaysia comes after the commerce ministry said in March the domestic industry was suffering "material injury due to such dumped imports" and sought a definitive measure to stop it.

The government will be imposing anti-dumping duties of $309, $316, $180 on import of 'hot-rolled austenitic stainless steel flat products of 304 series of all widths up to 1650 mm, from China, Malaysia and South Korea, respectively.

The anti-dumping duties will be effective for a period of five years, the finance ministry said in a statement late on Friday.

President of the Indian Stainless Steel Development Association, NC Mathur said, "It's a welcome move and a necessary one to save the domestic industry which (is) at the suffering end."

India consumes about 1 million tonne of hot rolled austenitic stainless steel flat products and more than 40 per cent of that is imported, mainly from China.

Steelmakers from Asia to Europe are under pressure of rising imports of cheap products as Russia and Ukraine, armed with weaker currencies along with China push in surplus output on to world markets.

Many steel companies in India, such as Tata Steel, JSW Steel and Kalyani Steels, have seen profits come under pressure.

Austenitic stainless steel is the widely used in automotive trim, cookware, food and beverage equipment, industrial equipment and the 304 series of the same is used in tanks, storage vessels and pipes for corrosive liquids, mining, chemical, cryogenic, food and beverage, and pharmaceutical equipment, cutlery, architecture, sinks, among others.

According to the commerce ministry, despite the Indian government's efforts to stop steel dumping into India, the exports of 'hot-rolled products of stainless steel of width more than 600mm' from China, South Korea and Malaysia recorded a year-on-year rise.