Hot-rolled coil import put under restricted list

Responding to demand made by the domestic steel industry for measures to check cheap imports from China, the government, on Friday, restricted the import of hot-rolled coils which was so far being freely imported.

This means that the item can now be imported only by actual users against licenses issued by the government and traders will no longer be allowed to import.

The move is part of the government’s effort to help the domestic industry deal with the global economic crisis and the slow-down in demand.

A notification issued by the directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) stated that import policy for the item `hot rolled coils’ will be amended to read as "restricted" instead of free.

Federation of Indian Export Organisations (Fieo) director general said the measure would be a disincentive for imports as traders can no more bring in hot-rolled coils and supply it directly to the domestic industry. “Since only actual users will be given licenses to import, the total import is expected to go down,” he said.

According to Vinod Mittal of Ispat Industries, the government has taken a pro-active decision at an appropriate time and the move will stabilise the domestic steel industry to some extent. “We are even looking at reducing steel prices further to help consumers get better prices. We will start operating at 80% of our capacity (against 50% at present) from January onwards,” he said.

There have been apprehensions about Chinese companies dumping hot-rolled coils in the Indian market. Reports on a possible withdrawal of the 15% export duty imposed by the Chinese government on steel has made the domestic industry even more jittery.

“Since anti-dumping investigations take a long time, the effective and fast way to check cheap imports is by restricting it. This is what the government has done,” an industry source said. More than 90% of India’s steel imports is from China. The government had, earlier, withdrawn export duty on certain iron and steel products to help domestic steel producers.