Government is examining steps to check dumping in steel sector: Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley said the government is examining more steps to check dumping of steel, a move which will help the industry deal with cheap imports of the metal. "We are looking and seriously examining other steps so that sectorally we can address the problem which can be defensive against dumping of steel in the country," he said at 'India Summit 2015' organised by The Economist magazine. The government has twice increased tariffs on steel imports this year.

"As far as steel is concerned, we have to balance the interest of the consuming industry along with the steel manufacturing industry. It is an external issue. So we have marginally increased our tariffs twice," said Jaitley. In view of surge in import of various categories of steel, the Directorate General of Safeguards (DGS) earlier this week initiated an inquiry into the imports of steel from China, Korea, Japan and Russia.

The DGS has initiated the probe after it found that "prima-facie increased imports of (certain kinds of steel) have caused or are threatening to cause serious injury to the domestic producers". The domestic steel producers have complained of surge in imports of steel products like hot-rolled steel and other variants from China, Korea, Japan and Russia. Last month, the government had hiked import duty on base metals, including iron and steel, by 2.5 per cent in a move aimed at helping domestic players battling cheap Chinese imports after the currency devaluation by China.

Earlier in June, the government had raised the duty on some long and flat steel products by 2.5 per cent. Besides, it also imposed anti-dumping duty of up to USD 316 per tonne on imports of certain steel products from three countries - China, Malaysia and Korea to protect domestic producers from below-cost inbound shipments.