India’s ministry of steel has moved its counterparts in ministry of finance seeking withdrawal of the antidumping (AD) duty on metallurgical coke citing tight domestic supplies and higher prices, government officials said on Monday, May 25.
India imposed a provisional antidumping duty on low-ash met coke- imports in December for six months. India primarily imports met coke from China, Indonesia, Poland, Japan and Switzerland. Import volumes are down sharply since the curbs were imposed.
The Steel Ministry highlighted the difficulties faced by state-run Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), saying the company had been unable to procure adequate quantities of met coke at reasonable prices from the domestic market, resulting in a 20 percent rise in input costs.
The steel ministry said that the AD duty on met coke has had ‘unintended consequences’ by disrupting supply chain and raising input cost of steel mills across the country.
At the same time, the domestic producers of met coke have been unable to ensure sufficient availability of the key steel making raw material at competitive prices, the officials said quoting from the communication to the ministry of finance.
