The government is yet to take a decision on fixing minimum import price (MIP) for steel, Commerce Secretary Rita Teaotia said on Wednesday.
The government has been considering proposals (including MIP) to protect domestic steel manufacturers from cheap imports mainly from China. It is in the process of undertaking a tariff-line wise detailed assessment to find out the sub-segments that are affected the most and need protection in terms of anti-dumping duty, countervailing duties (or anti-subsidy duties) and MIP.
However, the user industries also have been representing and arguing for their continuing access to low-cost imported steel to balance the domestic supplies.
Engineering exporters’ apex body, EEPC India, had approached the commerce ministry objecting to the restrictions on steel imports by way of fixing MIP, stating that there was no justification for the government to help handful of big steel makers at the cost of many small and medium export firms which would be forced to pay much higher price for their raw material.
Ms. Teaotia had earlier said the government would consider the overall macro picture of the sector including the country’s total steel consumption. Up to last year, India’s imports were about nine per cent of what it consumed and this year, it was somewhat higher, Ms.Teaotia said. She said “the peak that we reached is 15 per cent.” “Nevertheless, 85 per cent of the steel is met domestically. This is the bottom-line that we continue to utilise domestic steel largely. So imports are not a huge element of our total steel consumption,” she had said.
The secretary said India has considerable installed capacity and it is operating at about 80 per cent, which is a higher load factor than the rest of the world, averaging about 68 to 70 per cent.
