Do not impose safeguard duty on stainless steel, says industry body
Updated: Jan 15, 2015 01:36:16pm
Mumbai, Jan 15 (KNN) Process Plant and Machinery Association of India (PPMAI) has requested the Directorate General of Safeguards, Customs and Central Excise to refrain from imposing safeguard duty on cold rolled flat products of stainless steel of 400 series.
“Your initiation of safeguard duty process has raised a big alarm in the capital goods segment of the industry. How many tariff restrictions will the government impose to save one stainless steel producer in the country,” PPMAI Secretary General, V P Ramachandran said in a letter to the authority on January-13.
"There are already anti-dumping duties applicable on a host of stainless steel imports from practically all countries on the behest of the petitioner singularly. Also in these anti-dumping investigations, many products are exempt since the same are not produced by the petitioner. Surprisingly, the petitioner has not excluded those products from this safeguard duty petition. Therefore the initiation of safeguard duty is actually based on incorrect data from petitioner which does not justify this initiation at all," added Ramachandran.
Presently, the imports are mainly from Japan and Korea who basically supply these grades for their car units set up in India where the material standards call for the imports from these countries only. Moreover these countries as well as Malaysia enjoy special rate of import duty as a result of FTA with them. Due to FTA, the petitioner also gains access to these countries to export from India, he added.
Further, “the imports from China do not seem alarming as per the data available in the country. The imports from Europe are of high quality but very low in volumes and at a much higher price than the local producers because the industry needs such high quality product imports which are not available from the petitioner,” he said.
“Indian stainless steel industry has a limited range of products and their quality of products and commercial dealings are inconsistent and not world class. We do have Salem Steel Plant, though not there as petitioner, and they too have extremely limited range of products. Therefore imports shall happen and cannot be stopped,” he added.
In addition, “We do have confidence in the new government that it will take care of all end user industries including SMEs and not support any action which leads to creating any undue advantage for the petitioner to suit their individual business interests,” he said.
We therefore appeal to DG to reject this proposal of the petitioner for imposing safeguard duty," he added. (KNN/ES)
“Your initiation of safeguard duty process has raised a big alarm in the capital goods segment of the industry. How many tariff restrictions will the government impose to save one stainless steel producer in the country,” PPMAI Secretary General, V P Ramachandran said in a letter to the authority on January-13.
"There are already anti-dumping duties applicable on a host of stainless steel imports from practically all countries on the behest of the petitioner singularly. Also in these anti-dumping investigations, many products are exempt since the same are not produced by the petitioner. Surprisingly, the petitioner has not excluded those products from this safeguard duty petition. Therefore the initiation of safeguard duty is actually based on incorrect data from petitioner which does not justify this initiation at all," added Ramachandran.
Presently, the imports are mainly from Japan and Korea who basically supply these grades for their car units set up in India where the material standards call for the imports from these countries only. Moreover these countries as well as Malaysia enjoy special rate of import duty as a result of FTA with them. Due to FTA, the petitioner also gains access to these countries to export from India, he added.
Further, “the imports from China do not seem alarming as per the data available in the country. The imports from Europe are of high quality but very low in volumes and at a much higher price than the local producers because the industry needs such high quality product imports which are not available from the petitioner,” he said.
“Indian stainless steel industry has a limited range of products and their quality of products and commercial dealings are inconsistent and not world class. We do have Salem Steel Plant, though not there as petitioner, and they too have extremely limited range of products. Therefore imports shall happen and cannot be stopped,” he added.
In addition, “We do have confidence in the new government that it will take care of all end user industries including SMEs and not support any action which leads to creating any undue advantage for the petitioner to suit their individual business interests,” he said.
We therefore appeal to DG to reject this proposal of the petitioner for imposing safeguard duty," he added. (KNN/ES)
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