India’s Ministry of Steel will delay implementation of the mandatory certification for imports of auto grade steel, a ministry official said on Monday, March 21.
The official said that new rules for mandatory quality certification of all steel imports came into effect on Friday, March 18, but Indian automobile companies have received a six-month delay for imports of auto grade steel.
Auto companies and market leaders like Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai Motor Company Limited had communicated to the Ministry of Steel that Indian car manufacturers which imported an estimated 1 million mt of auto grade steel mainly from South Korea and Japan would be hit by production disruptions as the process of securing certification from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) took a very long time.
However, the government has not taken any decision to grant a permanent exemption from quality certification for all imports of auto grade steel, as demanded by local auto manufacturers, the official added.