The Minister of Steel and Mines Shri Narendra Singh Tomar said in a statement laid on the table of the Rajya Sabha today that with a crude steel production capacity of about 101 MT (Million Tonnes) in 2013-14, India produced about 87.67 MT of finished steel with an apparent consumption of about 74.09 MT.  In 2014-15 also with a capacity of about 110 MT,  India produced about 91.45 MT of finished steel with an apparent consumption of about 76.99 MT.  Thus India is capable of meeting almost the entire domestic steel demand.  India has witnessed about 75.5% increase (year-on-year) in imports of total steel (Alloy + Non Alloy) in 2014-15 & about 24% increase during April ’15 – Jan’16.  The jump in imports is largely on account of global steel glut. Due to this reason, steel is being exported by China and other countries, often at below cost of production.  Further, a small quantity of high quality steel, not manufactured locally, is also imported.

In order to protect domestic steel sector, the Government has taken various measures which have reduced the pace of growth of imports. While imports grew by about 75% in the Financial Year 2014-15, compared to the Financial Year 2013-14, the import growth has slowed to about 24% in the period April’15 – Jan’16, compared to the same period in the last Financial Year. Various steps taken in this regard are as follows:

(i)       To ensure that only quality steel is produced or imported, Government has            notified Steel & Steel Products (Quality Control) Orders, 2012 dated 12.03.2012 and Steel & Steel Products (Quality Control) Orders, 2015 dated 15.12.2015.

(ii)       To increase availability of Coal and Iron ore for the domestic steel industry:

(a)     Notified the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Amendment Act, 2015 on 30.03.2015 to streamline coal block allocations.

(b)     Notified the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2015 on 27.03.2015 to streamline grant of Mining Leases.

(iii)      The Union Budget 2015-16 has raised peak rate of basic customs duty on both flat and             non-flat steel to 15% from 10%.

(iv)      Hiked import duty on  ingots & billets, alloy steel (flat & long), stainless steel (long) and non-alloy long products from 5 % to 7.5%  and non-alloy and other alloy flat products from 7.5% to 10%.  Import Duty was further revised in August, 2015 on flat steel from 10% to 12.5%, long steel from 7.5% to 10% and semi-finished steel from 7.5% to 10%.

(v)       In November 2014, Government issued instruction to ensure import of rebars strictly as per Steel Product Quality Control Order 2012, to block influx of cheap imports of boron added rebars.

(vi)      In June, 2015, an Anti-Dumping Duty for five years on imports of certain    variety of hot-rolled flat products of stainless steel from China ($ 309 per          tonne), Korea ($ 180 per tonne) and Malaysia ($ 316 per tonne).

(vii)     Imposed, in September 2015, a provisional Safeguard Duty of 20% on hot-rolled flat products of non-alloy and other alloy steel, in coils of a width of 600 mm or more, for a period of 200 days.

(viii)    Imposed, vide its notification dated 05.02.2016, the Minimum Import Price (MIP) condition on 173 steel products. Imports of items covered under this notification will not be allowed into the country below the notified price.

Details of Demand (as actual consumption)

(in thousand tons)

Details of Supply (as actual production for sale)

 (in thousand tons)

Source : JPC

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YSK