The Indian government has initiated an antidumping (AD) investigation into imports of hot rolled coil (HRC) originating in or exported from 15 countries upon the petition submitted by JSW Steel, Essar Steel and Ispat Industries, the country's leading steelmakers.
The investigation involves alleged dumping of HR coils, HR sheets, HR plates, HR strips or any other HR flat products of iron ore non-alloy steel originating in or exported from China, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey and Ukraine.
The government will probe into dumping for imports between April 1, 2007 and September 30, 2008.
Since it takes about 45 days for investigations to be carried out and duties to be imposed, the government has determined that if dumping is established, AD duties will be imposed with retrospective effect from the date of filing of complaint by the industry.
Last week, the government imposed import restrictions on HRC and specific steel products used by a number of sectors including construction, automobile and oil. This means only actual users will be able to import these items against licenses issued by the government.