The Indian government is considering the imposition of a safeguard duty of up to 15 percent on certain steel products to protect the domestic industry against cheap imports from countries like China and Ukraine.
Endorsing the steel industry's concern that increasing steel imports are affecting the domestic market, the Indian government has already initiated an investigation on hot rolled products originating in or exported from China, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Philippines, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey and Ukraine.
India is now considering the size of the safeguard duty to be imposed on hot rolled steel products. If the safeguard investigation initiated for HR coils, sheets and strips and a few other steel products results in affirmative findings, the safeguard duty is expected to be in the range of 10 to 15 percent.
India's two leading private steel producers, Essar Steel and Ispat Industries, had filed a petition for the imposition of safeguard duty, also backed by domestic producers SAIL and JSW Steel. The companies alleged there was a steep increase in imports of steel items from countries like China, Japan and South Korea for the period April 2008 to February 2009, leading to a decline in their sales volumes and in the capacity utilization of domestic plants.