India may cut import duties on alloy steel to 5 percent

The Indian Finance Ministry is planning to reduce the import duty on alloy and value added steel to 5 percent from the current 10 percent, Indian sources reported. Such a reduction is likely to cause alloy steel producers difficulty. Alloy steel producers like Mukand Steel, Sunflag and Kalyani submitted petitions to the Indian government, asking for a protection to the domestic industry in the form of antidumping duties as imports have already surged by 130 percent over the past year. In India, the customs duty on the subject products has been reduced from 36 percent in 2003 to 15 percent in 2004 and to 10 percent in 2005. The reduction in the duty originally aimed at increasing imports of alloy and stainless steel long products, but such a big increase was not expected. Now, the dramatic increase in the imports of such products cause injury to the domestic producers of alloy and value added steel products.