In response to the recent demand made by the Indian domestic steel industry under the initiative of leading steelmakers such as SAIL, Essar, JSW and ISPAT for the controlling of cheap import arrivals, in particular from China which recently decided to remove export duties on various steel products, the Indian government has now announced the restriction of imports of hot rolled coils, which have been imported freely into the country up to now.
The decision has come a few days after the Indian government levied a five percent import duty on pig iron, semi-finished products, as well as on flat and long steel products, in a bid to protect the country from cheap import flows from countries where inventories are piling up - e.g. China, Thailand and Ukraine.
According to the new restrictive decision, only actual users will be permitted to import hot rolled coils via licenses to be issued by the government, whereas stockists will no longer be allowed to import the material in question.
According to the statistics, India imports seven million mt of steel per annum, with around 50 percent of this tonnage consisting of hot rolled coils.