The Indian government is considering replacing the quantitative restriction on imports of metallurgical coke with definitive antidumping duty, government sources said on Monday, September 29.
According to the sources, the ministry of steel has been in consultation with the ministry of commerce for such a move, with the latter maintaining that a formal report on a dumping investigation is awaited from the Directorate of Trade Remedies (DGTR) as early as next month, following which an antidumping levy would be determined.
In June this year, the government extended import curbs on low-ash metallurgical coke, a steelmaking raw material, for six months starting in July. Imports of low ash met coke have been capped at 1.4 million mt with country-specific import limits. The country-specific quantitative limits on imports are Australia - 51,276 mt, China - 78,646 mt, Japan - 209,000 mt, Russia - 89,182 mt, Singapore - 46,478 mt, and the UK - 76 mt.
The sources said that, while the final AD levy would be determined based on the DGTR report, the ministry of steel is seeking a levy of around $125/mt.
The dumping probe has been sought by the Indian Metallurgical Coke Manufacturers’ Association (IMCOM), which represented around 85 percent of domestic production.