The Indian government’s recent scrapping of import duty on metallurgical coke (met coke) is hurting domestic producers, making them uncompetitive against overseas suppliers, India Metallurgical Coke Manufacturers’ Association (IMCOM) said in a statement on Wednesday, October 26.
According to the association, while the five percent import duty on coking coal and 2.5 percent duty on imported met coke was scrapped by the government, it has had the impact of reducing selling prices of met coke of domestic manufacturers by five percent.
It said that there has been significant price suppression for the domestic met coke industry as it is no longer able to recover costs due to “injurious imports of low priced met coke”.
In a communication to the ministry of finance, the association said that domestic met coke producers have to pay a cess of INR 400/mt on import of coking coal which is not applicable on direct imports of met coke, which is to the advantage of importers of the product and to the detriment of the pricing ability of domestic producers.
Citing official data, the association claimed that imports of met coke had increased 40 percent during the July-August period, immediately after the scrapping of import duties on coking coal and met coke.
It has forecast that domestic production of met coke will shrink to less than 3 million mt in 2022, down from 3.5 million mt in 2021.