The Indian Stainless Steel Development Association (ISSDA), the apex body representing domestic stainless steel producers, has sought “a level playing field” through measures in the national budget to be placed before the Indian parliament on February 1, an official at the association said on Friday, January 21.
The official said that in a memorandum submitted to the ministry of finance ahead of the budget, ISSDA has sought immediate restoration of countervailing duty (CVD) on stainless steel imports in the country as among measures to ensure a level playing field for domestic producers.
“Making strides across applications, stainless steel has proved to be essential for the growth and development of the country. Overall domestic capacity needs to be increased from 6 million mt per year to 9 million mt per year by 2030,” ISSDA president K.K. Pahuja said in a statement.
“Sadly, the total capacity utilization for the domestic stainless steel industry stands at a mere 60 percent under pressure from imports. Restoring CVD against subsidized and dumped stainless steel from China and Indonesia will create a healthy environment for Indian producers,” he said.
“The gravity of the situation can be understood from the fact that, by revoking the trade remedial measure against China and Indonesia, stainless steel imports from these two countries during the first half of fiscal 2021-22 increased 172 percent, with Indonesia set to replace India as the second largest producer in the world,” Pahuja said.
He said that the European Commission in December 2021 imposed CVD of up to 34.3 percent on stainless steel cold rolled flat products from Indonesia and this would further nudge the country to dump more in India as most of the stainless steel-producing countries have protection for domestic producers, and India is the only attractive and open market available for producers in China and Indonesia.