Union budget opens floodgates for Chinese stainless-steel imports: ISSDA

The Union budget has opened thefloodgates for imports of Chinese stainless-steel withtemporary revocation of anti-dumping and countervailingduties, which is expected to hurt domestic manufacturers ofsuch product, an industry body said on Monday.

Suspension of these duties will undermine domesticmanufacturing with an adverse impact on employment generationand defeat the 'Make in India' movement, Indian StainlessSteel Development Association (ISSDA) said.

''This is a big unintentional gift to Chinese companiesand will severely hit the domestic stainless-steel industry,which has been in financial stress for more than a decade.

''Imports from Indonesia rose from just 8,601 MT inFY2017-18 to 76,102 MT in FY2018-19 and 280,575 MT in FY2019-20. This will not only hamper Indian production but will turnmany MSME manufacturers into traders,'' ISSDA president K KPahuja said.

The government on Monday announced slashing of importduties on a number of steel items to provide relief to MSMEs,which have been hit hard by the high cost of raw materials.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budgetspeech for 2021-22 said the anti-dumping duty (ADD) andcountervailing duty (CVD) have also been revoked on certainsteel products.

The CVD has temporarily been revoked on imports ofcertain hot rolled and cold rolled stainless steel flatproducts, originating in or exported from China.

Provisional CVD has been revoked on imports flatproducts of stainless steel, originating in or exported fromIndonesia.

The stainless steel constitutes only three per cent ofthe total steel requirement of the country, but comprises over35 per cent MSME suppliers, who will be adversely affected bythis decision, the industry body said.