India’s move to increasingly bring more steel products under mandatory quality control orders (QCOs) is expected to trigger a drop in imports from China, SteelOrbis learned from government and industry officials on Thursday, September 14.
Under the mandatory QCOs, products are not permitted to be manufactured, stored, traded or sold without certification of compliance with standards set by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for the respective products.
In the case of products being imported, BIS mandates that each manufacturing plant overseas acting as a source for imports will need to be inspected by officials of the national standards organization only following which an importer will be issued with a certification clearing inward shipment of the product from specific overseas manufacturers.
The domestic steel industry and government officials said that great uncertainty prevails currently regarding whether the Chinese government will give clearances to officials of the BIS to inspect steel mills in China from where Indian imports are expected to be sourced.
Steel and metal imports from China account for six percent of the total $106 billion worth of imports from that country to India.
China has not officially rejected inspection visits by BIS officials but with post-Covid travel restrictions still prevailing such inspections of steel mills have not been possible even though other countries have opened up their facilities for such inspections, a government official said.
No inward shipment of any product from a plant not inspected is permitted for products under the QCO, while the customs authorities at ports are empowered to block all shipments which are not supported by certification of inspection of the manufacturer, the official said.
As long as steel mills in China are not opened up for inspection, they cannot be the source of imports and hence inward shipments are expected to dwindle over a period of time, he said.
The Steel and Steel Products (Quality Control) Order relates to the regulation of steel and steel products. The products included in the order are steel tubes, tubular, other wrought steel fitting, steel tubes for structural purposes, water wells, and any other products announced by the government from time to time.