Amid fears of dumping into India following steep US duties on Chinese language items, the federal government has imposed a 12 per cent safeguard responsibility on non-alloy and alloy metal flat merchandise, a notification from the Ministry of Finance launched on Monday confirmed.
This follows an investigation by the Directorate Basic of Commerce Treatments (DGTR), underneath the Ministry of Commerce and Trade, which in its findings final month stated that there was a “sudden and sharp” surge in imports that might “trigger severe damage to the home trade”.
“The safeguard responsibility imposed underneath this notification shall be efficient for a interval of 2 hundred days (except revoked, outmoded or amended earlier) from the date of publication of this notification within the Official Gazette and shall be payable in Indian foreign money,” the notification said.
Notably, a number of specialised metal objects have been excluded from the scope of the measure, together with Chilly Rolled Grain Oriented Electrical Metal (CRGO), tinplate, chrome steel, rubber-coated metal, brass-coated metal, and aluminium-coated metal, amongst others.
The notification added that the safeguard responsibility won’t apply to product classes priced above the import worth on a Value, Insurance coverage and Freight (CIF) foundation—set at $675 per metric tonne (MT) for decent rolled coils, sheets and plates, and $964 per MT for colour-coated coils and sheets, whether or not or not profiled.
Fearing an additional surge, the Ministry of Metal had final 12 months urged the Ministry of Commerce to impose a 25 per cent responsibility on metal merchandise, citing an 80 per cent enhance in metal imports from China—to 1.61 million tonnes between January and July 2024.
In its submission to the Ministry of Commerce and Trade, the Indian Metal Affiliation (ISA) had stated that since the USA imposed a 25 per cent responsibility underneath Part 232 of its Commerce Enlargement Act, 1962, a number of nations have launched a number of commerce treatment measures towards metal imports. “The proof signifies that 129 commerce treatment measures have been imposed by varied nations towards metal merchandise between 2019 and 2023,” ISA had stated.
Story continues beneath this advert
The ISA warned that the surge in imports poses a menace to home manufacturing, as there’s important overcapacity far exceeding home consumption in China, Japan and South Korea. “To mitigate the decline in metal consumption for lengthy merchandise, Chinese language metal firms shifted a big proportion of their manufacturing from lengthy to flat merchandise, which at the moment are being exported to world markets,” it stated.
The DGTR, in its findings final month, additionally flagged that main steel-producing economies resembling Japan, South Korea and China have capacities far past their home wants. It warned that this extra capability may push metal producers in these nations to extend exports—posing a severe menace to Indian trade.
Nevertheless, Engineering Export Promotion Council of India (EEPC India) Chairman, Pankaj Chadha, stated that extra measures are wanted to guard MSMEs and person industries from potential worth hikes and provide disruptions.
“There needs to be a provision for MSME items to acquire metal at export parity costs to make sure their world competitiveness. Just like the EU mannequin, country-specific quotas must also be thought-about to keep away from overdependence on any single supply,” Chadha stated.
Story continues beneath this advert
Highlighting considerations over home worth escalation, Chadha added that utilizing the Tariff Charge Quota (TRQ) worth as a benchmark may assist preserve worth stability and guarantee reasonably priced uncooked materials provide for India’s engineering and manufacturing sectors.