India's steel imports, including stainless steel, declined 13 percent year-on-year to around 9.59 million mt during CY'25, reflecting the impact of the government's safeguard duty and tighter trade scrutiny. The contraction comes after a sharp surge in low-priced imports in CY'24 raised concerns over injury to domestic producers.
Commodity-wise imports
India's finished flat carbon steel imports stood at 6.57 million mt in CY'25, down 24 percent year-on-year. Hot-rolled coil (HRC) arrivals declined by 36 percent to 2.86 million mt, while electrical steel fell by 4 percent to 1.80 million mt and galvanised steel by 21 percent to 990,000 mt.
Semi-finished steel imports jumped by 272 percent to 1.06 million mt, while finished long arrivals decreased by 4 percent to 270,000 mt. However, stainless steel imports were down by 3 percent at 1.70 million mt.
Country-wise imports
Imports from South Korea fell by a minor 4 percent year-on-year at 2.83 million mt. Chinese exports to India fell 48 percent year-on-year to 1.69 million mt, while shipments from Japan fell 22 percent to 1.48 million mt.
Factors influencing India's steel imports in CY'25
Safeguard duty raises landed costs of imports: The implementation of the provisional 12 percent safeguard duty in April raised landed costs of flat steel imports, making them higher than domestic prices. Later, during the year-end, the government imposed a definitive duty for a period of three years, beginning retrospectively from the date of provisional duty imposition on 21 April 2025.
The safeguard duty applies to a broad range of flat steel products, including HRCs, sheets and plates, hot-rolled plate mill plates, cold-rolled coils and sheets, metallic coated steel, and colour-coated steel products.
This was the primary reason behind the sharp fall in flat steel imports, as it made the landed costs of imports uncompetitive. For example, on 6 November, the landed costs of Chinese HRCs came to INR 55,786/t and Japanese HRCs to INR 53,128/mt, while domestic HRCs were priced at INR 47,850/mt ex-Mumbai, excluding GST.
Anti-dumping duties keep importers wary: Anti-dumping duties on Vietnamese flat steel and Chinese electrical steel also curbed India's import demand.
The Indian government, on 12 November 2025, imposed an anti-dumping duty of $121.5/tonne (t) on imports of hot-rolled flat products of alloy or non-alloy steel originating in or exported from Vietnam.
On 19 December, the Indian government imposed anti-dumping duties on imports of cold rolled non-oriented (CRNO) electrical steel originating from China PR, citing material injury to the domestic industry. The duty will remain in force for a period of five years unless revised or withdrawn earlier.
Additionally, the government has launched an anti-dumping investigation into cold-rolled stainless steel flat steel imports from China, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
Govt stresses on stricter quality control for imported steel: In June, the government mandated that raw materials for imported steel meet BIS quality standards to block cheap, substandard imports. However, enforcement was delayed and several exemptions were allowed. By November, a new notification temporarily suspended 55 quality standards for steel used in the engineering, automotive, and specialty sectors.
Outlook
Global steel overcapacity amid the decline in Chinese demand, especially in Asia, will always lead to a diversion of supplies toward India as one nation with fast-growing steel consumption. The government has already allowed steel imports of non-QCO grades without prior permission and for QCO grades an exemption mechanism is in place. Therefore, essential imports, especially of grades not available domestically, will continue. However, the safeguard duty will act as a deterrent to dumping.
Source: Bigmint