India levies anti-dumping duties on flat steels imports from China and the EU

India yesterday imposed anti-dumping duties on flat steels imported from China and the EU. According to officials, similar safeguards could be imposed to help aluminium makers.

An anti-dumping duty equivalent to the difference between the landed value of steel products and $849 per tonne would be imposed on the products, according to a notification by the revenue department.

The duty had been imposed on pre-painted, colour-coated or organic-coated flat steels whether or not with metallic-coated substrate of zinc, aluminium-zinc or any other substrate coating, excluding plates of thickness 6mm or more.

According to the revenue department the duty had been imposed for six months.

The move comes after a recommendation from the directorate-general of anti-dumping and allied duties regarding exports by China and the EU at below-normal rates and that the domestic industry had suffered a material injury from such imports. Essar Steel India and JSW Steel Coated Products had filed complaints regarding the dumping by China and EU.

In addition to the levy of a minimum import price, India had earlier extended safeguard duties of 20 per cent on various steel products by two years as a protective measure for the domestic industry, to counter cheap imports from China, Japan and Korea.

H Shivram Krishnan, director (Commercial), Essar Steel India, said the provisional confirmation of anti-dumping duty on colour coated steel by Director General of Anti-Dumping upheld the concerns of the domestic industry over predatory priced imports from China, The Hindu reported. He added that the anti-dumping measures were in line with the process and norms laid down by the WTO.

The government imposed a minimum import price on 173 steel products ranging between $341 and $752 per tonne for a period of six months on 5 February, 2016.

The list was later cut in December to cover only 19 products with lowered MIP range of $643-$752 a tonne till 4 February.

According to industry estimates India had colour coated sheet production capacity of about 1.9 million tonne a year and the domestic consumption was about 1 million tonnes a year.