Indian domestic met coke manufacturers have alleged that steel companies are misusing the advance authorization scheme (AAS) for steel companies under which raw materials are permitted to be imported duty free only on the commitment that they will be used for production of exports, Indian Metallurgical Coke Manufacturers’ Association (IMCOM) said in a statement on Wednesday, September 24.
Demanding a government probe into the misuse of the duty-free import window, the association said that India produced 160 million mt of finished steel a year and average exports were around 5 million mt per year, but met coke imports coming into the country were extraordinarily high, at about 2.8 million mt per year. It pointed out that 0.5 million mt of met coke was required to produce one million mt of steel.
The association that said domestic steel companies are using imported met coke to produce steel which in turn is being sold in the local market, contravening export commitments under the AAS.
India recently set country-specific import quotas and capped met coke purchases at 1.4 million metric tons from July 1 to December 31.
Indian steel producers have petitioned the government to raise met coke import quota to 9.3 million mt, with the largest share of additional shipments sought from Indonesia, followed by Japan and Poland.