India may alter minimum import price list for steel sector

Raipur, INDIA (Reuters) - India may alter the list of steel items that attract a minimum import price if the country decides to continue with the protectionist measure beyond August, steel secretary Aruna Sundararajan said.

India imposed the minimum import price (MIP) on 173 steel products in February, helping cut inbound shipments last month to their lowest level in at least 14 months. The MIP expires in August.

The country is the world's third-largest steel producer, with a total installed capacity of 110 million tonnes. But the domestic industry says its margins have been squeezed due to cheap imports from China, Russia, Japan and South Korea.

India is currently carrying out an anti-dumping probe against imports of certain steel products from some countries.

Those items would be removed from the list on which anti-dumping duty is imposed while new products could be added, she said.

(Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)