Even though the recent imposition of a safeguard duty on HR coils is a move in the right direction, it is not going to stop the menace of cheap imports and the government should impose the same on the entire range of steel products, said Ravi Uppal, CEO and MD, JSPL.
“It is true that the government has taken some small steps to protect the local industry… however, it has put in place a safeguard duty only on one item which is called HR coils. But there are a huge number of other items and HR coils is one of them. The need is to put this condition across products or the entire range of steel products from semi-finished goods to fully finished ones and for processed steel as well,” Uppal told ISMW.
“Importers are so clever that if you put the safeguard duty only on one item like HR coils, then they can start bringing in plates, slabs and convert slabs into coils here if they like using the Indian re-rollers,” he reasoned.
“They can also bring cold range of coils and this is precisely what they did after the government had imposed the 20% safeguard duty or provisional duty on HR coils. Therefore, it made no impact. We have now told the government and all the concerned ministries that the protection scheme must cover the full range of steel products,” he added.