The National Steel Policy (NSP), ratified by the Indian government last week, provides for mandatory use of domestic steel in government projects but makes no assessment of its impact on steel product prices and on user industries, India’s Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) said in a statement on Monday, May 8.
According to the EEPC, the preferential treatment for domestic steel for government projects would lead to an all-round increase in steel prices, making domestic engineering product manufacturers even more uncompetitive in international markets in terms of price.
The domestic steel industry already enjoys protection through antidumping and safeguard duties and further preferential treatment under the NPS would be the “death knell for value addition to steel in the engineering industry,” the EEPC said in its statement.