India’s steel imports from China hit an all-time high of 1.7 million mt during the April-October period of the fiscal year 2024-25, provisional data of the Ministry of Steel showed on Friday, December 6.
The inward shipments of finished steel from China during the April-October period showed a rise of 35.4 percent over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.
Imported steel from China arriving in India mostly comprised stainless steel, hot rolled coils, galvanized sheets, plates, and electrical sheets.
Overall, finished steel imports to India reached a seven-year high of 5.7 million metric tons during this period.
India’s steel ministry has proposed a 25 percent safeguard duty on flat steel products to limit cheap Chinese imports, in response to sustained pressures from domestic steel producers.
However, at the other end, major steel consuming industries like the Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC, representing engineering product exporters from India) has claimed that imposition of any tariff to check imports would in reality push up domestic steel prices, as local mills tend to benchmark domestic steel prices to the landed prices of imports.
Steel product manufacturers have also counter-argued that any move to make imported steel expensive would make Indian engineering product exporters uncompetitive in major markets overseas.