India slaps anti-dumping duty on steel products from 6 nations

New Delhi, Aug 9 India today imposed anti-dumping duty on certain hot-rolled steel products from six nations including China and South Korea with an aim to guard domestic players from cheap imports.

The duty will be the difference between the landed value and the respective prescribed value which is USD 474 per tonne and USD 557 per tonne.

The anti-dumping duty imposed "shall be effective for a period not exceeding six months (unless revoked, superseded or amended earlier)...and shall be paid in Indian currency," the Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance said in a notification.

The restrictive duty was slapped on the imports of "Hot- rolled flat products of alloy or non-alloy steel" from China, Japan, Korea, Russia, Brazil and Indonesia.

The anti-dumping duty was imposed on recommendation of the Directorate General of Anti Dumping (DGAD), an arm of Commerce Ministry.

Essar Steel India, Steel Authority of India and JSW Steel had jointly filed an application before DGAD for initiation of anti-dumping investigation concerning the imports.

They had complained of dumping and consequent injury and requested for levy of anti-dumping duty on the imports from these countries.

According to the notification, Korean firms attracting the anti-dumping duty are Hyundai Steel Company and POSCO.

Three Japanese companies JFE Steel Corp, Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corp are also featuring in the list.

DGAD "has come to the provisional conclusion that the subject goods have been exported to India from the subject countries below normal value (and) the domestic industry has suffered material injury on account of subject imports from the subject countries," the notification said.

Also, DGAD felt "the injury has been caused by the dumped imports of the subject goods from the subject countries".

India is also likely to impose anti- dumping duty on imports of certain cold-rolled steel products from four countries - China, Japan, Korea and Ukraine.

To protect domestic industries from cheap imports, the government has also extended the minimum import price (MIP) on 66 steel products for a period of two months as against 173 items earlier.

Countries initiate anti-dumping probes to determine if the domestic industry has been hurt by a surge in below-cost imports. As a counter-measure, they impose duties under the multi-lateral WTO regime.

Anti-dumping measures are taken to ensure fair trade and provide a level-playing field to the domestic industry. They are not a measure to restrict imports or cause an unjustified increase in cost of products.

However, user industries including exporters' body Engineering Exports Promotion Council (EEPC) has opposed the move citing difficulties being faced by them.

PTI