Trade Articles

With a motive of preempting dumping process from the China, the government has come up with a measure of slapping the restrictions on more specific steel imports, which is more widely used across the automobile, construction and oil industries. Due to the shifting of the seamless tubes and pipes from the list of 'Free' to 'Restricted' items, now the user industries are required to obtain license from the government for importing the spatiality steel. Import curbs have already been placed on the hot rolled coils and the mother steel items apart from the 5% imposition of custom duty on the specified iron and steel products. As per the notification issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, wood and wood products also come under the head of the 'Restricted' list. The government has brought seamless tubes and pipes under the heading Restricted' list. With these implications, the items now cannot be imported for any trading activities.

The international financial meltdown has resulted into the changes in the fortunes of the local steel industry which has the capacity of more than 55 million tonnes. It has witnessed the declination of more than 30% in the demand generated. It has been found that because of the fall out of the export demand due to the available surpluses in the China after Olympics, the steel market has transited into the buyer's delight. The price structure at the global front has witnessed the high correction from $1250 tonnes to come down at $500 tonne, which has forced the steep erosion at the price in the domestic marketplace. With the erosion of demand, many steel leading producers like Ispat, Essar and JSW have seen a cut in the production for avoiding the situation of inventory piling up. They fear that the China, equipped with the capacity of more than 10 times larger than that of the India may start dumping its products in the Indian territory. The recent government imposition has received as a welcoming note and has given some sort of relief to the industry. Giving the positive response on the government imposition, the managing director of Jindal SAW, one of the India's largest SAW Pipes producer, MR. Indresh Batra siad that "Had the imports been allowed without restrictions, the Indian market would have been flooded with cheap Chinese products"

The seamless tubes and pipes can now be imported by the actual users only after obtaining license from the government. Calling the government import restrictions of non use, Mr.H L Bhardwaj, secretary general of the Federation of Indian Industries, said that "The move is illogical because India’s import of pipes and tubes is negligible".With the transfer of items from the free import list to the restricted import list, the traders would be barred from importing of items and thus make imports more accessible to the local industry. Even when the government has taken up several measures for checking down imports of the cheaper steel, the industry is still hoping from the ministry to levy on custom duty of 10 % or more than of it,for protecting the sector. India's domestic companies are apprehending the dumping process by the companies from the China, Ukraine and Thailand.