Indian capital goods and engineering companies will be negatively impacted in terms of manufacturing and competitiveness if the government goes ahead with the imposition of a minimum import price for steel, several industry associations and officials said on Tuesday, December 15.
The Process Plant and Manufacturing Association of India (PPMAI) stated that the steel industry is being given “excessive protection” even without the government consulting any of the stakeholders in the steel consuming industries.
T S Bhasin, chairman of the Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC), said, “User industries have been hit hard by the government’s support for large steel producers who are benefitting from the crash in prices of raw materials like iron ore and coal, but are complaining of the rise in imports.”
“It is the government’s responsibility to ensure that helping a handful of large companies will not harm large number of small and medium-size engineering product manufacturers whose competitiveness depends on easy availability of steel products,” Mr. Bhasin said.