India slaps anti-dumping duty on 47 steel products for 5 years

India has imposed anti-dumping duty on 47 steel products from half-a-dozen nations, including China, Japan, Korea, Russia and Indonesia, to protect domestic industry from cheap imports.

Anti-dumping duty has been imposed for five years on 47 steel products including hot-rolled flat products of steel and those coated with zinc and clad steel.

An official notification issued late on Thursday stated that the anti-dumping duty will be in effect for five years beginning August 8, 2016. The duties are in the range of $478-561 per tonne. It said the Directorate of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) has found in its investigation that the subject goods have been exported to India at below their normal value, thus resulting in dumping of the product.

This has resulted in "material injury" to domestic industry, it said, and recommended "imposition of definitive anti-dumping duty on the imports of subject goods."

The duty has been levied on hot-rolled flat products of alloy or non alloy steel, originating in or exported from China, Japan, Korea, Russia, Brazil and Indonesia, the notification said.

Companies affected by the duties include Hyundai Steel, POSCO and Samsung C&T of South Korea, while Japan's Honda Trading Corp, Mitsui & Co Ltd, Uttam Galva International, Nippon Steel, Sumitomo Corp, Toyoto Tshusho Corp and Marubeni-Itochu Steel would also come under its purview. From China, the companies to be impacted include Jiangsu Shangang, Xinsha International, Burwill Resources, Lu Qin, GS Global and Steelco Pacific.

India had imposed provisional anti-dumping duty on the steel products with effect from August 8, 2016 for six months. They were extended by two months in February. The same are now being regularised and levied for a five-year period.

Besides, India had previously imposed the duties on August 17, 2016, for six months on cold-rolled flat products of alloy or non-alloy steel from China, Japan, South Korea and Ukraine. The same were extended by two more months. Now, the duties have been imposed on hot-rolled products for five years.

"The anti-dumping duty imposed under this notification shall be effective for a period of five years (unless revoked, superseded or amended earlier) from the date of imposition of the provisional anti-dumping duty, that is, August 8, 2016, and shall be payable in Indian currency," the notification said.

The taxes are one of several measures the government has taken over the past two years to protect India's steel industry - the world's third largest by output - and that include putting a floor price on imports.

These measures have prompted the world's second biggest steel producer Japan to ask the World Trade Organization to set up a dispute settlement panel to examine India's actions.

Indian companies such as JSW Steel, Tata Steel and SAIL have already benefited from the restrictions on overseas purchases, with imports falling around 37 percent to 7.4 million tonnes and exports jumping 102 percent to 8.2 million tonnes in the year ended March 31 from a year ago.

The latest duty on hot-rolled steel follows a recommendation from the Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties, which has also suggested a similar step for some cold-rolled products.

The world's largest steelmaker ArcelorMittal on Friday reported a net profit of $1 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2017 but reported a rise in net debt to $12.1 billion during the period.