The Indian government is yet to take a call on initiating a countervailing duty (CVD) inquiry on steel imports from China, South Korea and Japan.
This country-specific duty, also known as an anti-subsidy duty, on imports is imposed to nullify subsidies provided by other nations and is intended to make prices of domestic products competitive.
This comes in the backdrop of India alleging non-cooperation from China in a separate stainless steel CVD investigation.
The petition filed by domestic steel producers, including state-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd, JSW Steel Ltd and Essar Steel Ltd during May 2016, had alleged that the Chinese government is providing a host of subsidies to its manufacturers and the government needs to investigate the matter.
“We had received petitions from domestic steel manufacturers regarding CVD investigation on cold-rolled steel product and hot-rolled coil imports from various countries along with petition for anti-dumping inquiry. However, anti-dumping investigations are already on and they have taken care of the injury to steelmakers. The CVD investigation has not been initiated as of now,” said a senior government official on condition of anonymity.
InfraCircle on 3 October reported about the possibility of India’s ongoing CVD investigation on imports of stainless steel products from China, due to alleged lack of adequate support from Chinese authorities to ascertain subsidies provided to its manufacturers.
“Integrated steel producers have mentioned in their petition that Chinese steelmakers are getting more than 100 different kinds of subsidies, which are making their product less competitive. We have not yet decided to initiate the inquiry,” said another government official who also didn’t want to be identified.
In order to shield the domestic steel industry from cheap imports from Japan, China, Korea, Russia, Brazil and Indonesia, the government in August put in place an anti-dumping duty on imports of hot-rolled flat products from these countries. The duty has been imposed for a period of six months starting 8 August.
“The CVD investigation entails a detailed inquiry into the diverse set of subsidies being given to manufacturers from the member country,” said a senior industry executive, who wished not be named.
Queries emailed to the spokespersons of SAIL, JSW Steel, Essar Steel and the ministries of commerce and steel on 3 October remained unanswered.
On 5 August, the government also extended the minimum import price on 66 types of steel products in the range of $341-752 per tonne for two months till 4 October. The government is also evaluating this list to expand the number of steel products which attracts anti-dumping duty.
Experts believe measures taken as of now to protect the domestic steel industry have improved the situation, though they need to be sustained.
“As per WTO (World Trade Organization) norms, we have to gradually proceed towards lower duty so as to allow free supply of commodities. We can protect our industry to an extent. Rather, it is our industry that should undertake energy-saving measures and other related works to remain competitive,” said H.S. Chhatwal, former director-commercial, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd.
SOurce:VCCircle