Govt slaps countervailing duty on Chinese stainless steel imports

Duty will remain effective for five years, domestic industry hails move

After a one-year-long investigation, the government imposed 18.95 per cent countervailing duty on hot rolled and cold rolled stainless steel flat products imported from China, a move hailed by the domestic industry.

It was found that these products were being imported from China at subsidised value and were hurting the domestic industry, Central Board of Excise and Customs said in a notification.  

The decision will go a long way in encouraging production of the metal within the country and will provide some relief to the domestic industry and provide a level playing field, Abhyuday Jindal, vice-chairman, Jindal Stainless, said.

Post-imposition of the duty, the industry expects better quality compliance as a majority of the substandard stainless steel was being imported from China.
 

It would provide a much-needed level playing field to the domestic industry, K K Pahuja, president, Indian Stainless Steel Development Association (ISSDA) said.

This duty will remain effective for a period of five years. In its finding Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) concluded that subsidised imports from China had increased significantly and domestic industry continued to suffer financial losses.

The DGAD investigation also revealed that Chinese government is providing various forms of subsidies to support local stainless steel manufacturing units. Countervailing duty is country specific and is imposed to safeguard the domestic industry against unfair trade subsidies provided by the local governments of the exporting country.

Jindal Stainless Ltd and Jindal Stainless (Hisar) Ltd on behalf of the domestic industry had filed the petition for initiation of anti-subsidy/countervailing duty investigation concerning imports of “flat rolled products of stainless steel” from China.