The ministries of commerce and steel are close to finalising the minimum import price of about 30-35 steel products, which is likely to be announced this week.
The government wants to fix a minimum price for the in-bound shipment of certain steel products to check cheap imports, which are impacting the domestic industry and can jeopardise billions of dollars of investment that the steel companies have made for capacity expansion.
The commerce and steel ministries have proposed a floor price for over 30 products below which imports will not be allowed, sources said.
"Both the ministries have been holding meeting since the last several days to finalise the number of items, which should be included in the MIP (minimum import price) list. This list and the price is expected to be finalised this week," they said.
Earlier, the steel ministry had asked for 35-40 products, including pig iron, semi-finished products and cold-rolled coils, to be included in the list, while the commerce ministry asked them to prune it.
The domestic industry is facing a tough situation owing to cheap imports from China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
Steel companies have taken huge loans for capacity expansion and are under severe stress as cheap imports are eating into their domestic share, a senior government official said.
PSU banks are saddled with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of around Rs 2.67 lakh crore at the end of March. Gross NPA of the all banks stood at around Rs 3.09 lakh crore during the same period. The steel sector is a major contributor to the NPA of PSU banks.
The government's move to impose MIP comes even as it has initiated several measures to check imports.
The Centre has imposed an anti-dumping duty of up to 57.39 per cent on the import of certain stainless steel products from China, Korea, the US and EU for five years to save the domestic industry from cheap shipments.
Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/