The revocation of antidumping (AD) duty and countervailing duty (CVD) on imported stainless steel raw materials will offer a level playing field for domestic value-addition and will not open the floodgates to imports as local demand for raw material far outstrips supplies in the local market, an official at the All India Stainless Steel Pipes and Tubes Manufacturers’ Association said on Wednesday, February 24.
According to the association, the revocation of the duties proposed in the national budget will break monopolies in domestic stainless steel raw material supplies and downstream producers will be able to rely more on timely deliveries and internationally benchmarked prices.
“The scrapping of the duties will check artificial price hikes of stainless steel required by downstream industries for finished products like tubes and pipes. Small and medium-scale producers are suffering on two counts - first, from artificially inflated domestic raw material prices by large monopolies and, second, from cheaper imports of finished products,” Ramesh Patel, vice president of the association, said.
“It is essential that India becomes self-reliant for stainless steel finished products such as pipes and tubes and, to discourage imports of finished stainless steel, domestic value-adding industries must flourish and this can only happen if there is enough and unrestricted supply of raw materials,” he said.