Anti-dumping duty for certain stainless steel products

The moves follows the government’s introduction of a 20 percent import tax on some other steel products in September, which failed to contain losses for Indian steel companies struggling to compete due to debts and high raw material costs.

In a notification, the Central Board of Excise and Customs said the duty has been imposed on China, South Korea, the US, South Africa, Thailand and Taiwan, besides the European Union.

In August, import duties on base metals were hiked by 2.5% and in June an anti-dumping duty of up to $316 per ton was imposed on inbound shipments of some steel items from three countries, including China.

The anti-dumping duty – which will be valid for five years – ranged from 4.58 per cent to 57.39 per cent of the landed value depending on the country of export.

While a 9.47% duty has been levied on CR flat products of stainless steel from the U.S., products from European Union will attract a duty of 29.41-52.56% while those from Thailand will be charged at 5.39%.

Imports of stainless steel have almost doubled in the last four years to 2014-15 at 4.59 lakh tonnes.

“The subject goods include cold-rolled Flat products of stainless steel of width of 600 mm up to 1250 mm of all series …”, the CBEC notification said. The width limit should be removed, ” said a Jindal Stainless spokesperson.

The Directorate General of Safeguards, a branch of the finance ministry that can impose temporary import curbs, said on Tuesday it found prima facie evidence that increases in imports “have caused or are threatening to cause serious injury to the domestic producers”, as it investigates local industry complaints.

The steel ministry had asked for 35 to 40 products including pig iron, semi-finished products and cold-rolled coils.

Shares of steelmakers such as Bhushan Steel, Tata Steel and Jindal Steel gained up to 7 per cent in intraday trades after the government initiated safeguard on imports of hot-rolled plates and sheets.