Tinplate industry worried over cheap imports

The domestic tinplate industry is deeply worried over imports of non-prime grades owing to absence of duty differential with prime grades.
Industry sources said that significant imports of non-prime tinplate and their possible use in food packaging was dampening the demand for prime tinplate.
"Currently, there is no duty-differential between non-prime and prime tinplate while customs duty on the latter continues to be low", the source said.
He said, due to absence of significant entry barriers, countries like USA, Europe and Japan were dumping tin mill products under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
According to industry estimates, non-prime tinplate imports grew by 13 per cent in the last financial year with incremental volumes touching 25,000 tonnes.

Nearly 45 per cent of India's domestic consumption was being met from imports.
The other threat which the industry was facing was due to the FTA with Japan and Korea, import of good quality prime tinplate had also become cheaper from the last financial year.