India should double tariffs on steel imports – CEO of AMNS India

India has to double the tariffs on steel imports to control it. Dilip Oomen, CEO of ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India, expressed this opinion, Reuters reports.

Currently, he said, the country is facing steel dumping and predatory pricing.

In the first five months of the 2024/25 fiscal year, India’s imports of rolled goods from China hit a seven-year high.

«The base duty should be doubled to 15% from the current 7.5%,» Oomen said at the FT Live Energy Transition India Summit.

In the first half of the 2024/2025 financial year (April-September), according to the Joint Factory Committee, India became a net importer of steel, increasing imports by 41% y/y – up to 4.7 million tons. At the same time, the export of metal products from the country fell by 36% year-on-year in this period – to 2.3 million tons, writes SteelOrbis.

In September of this year, the country imported about 1 million tons of rolled steel (+78% y/y), these volumes also almost correspond to August. Exports for the month amounted to 0.4 million tons, which is 8% less than in September 2023, but 16% more than in August of this year.

According to the report, there is pressure on the Indian market from imports, especially from China and South Korea. But on a sequential or month-on-month basis, import growth rates are manageable as they come in low single digits. A positive point is that there is a significant improvement in exports. In addition, some price strengthening in China is also considered a favorable factor, if this trend is long-term.

As GMK Center reported earlier, India is considering alternative markets amid the introduction of CBAM. Africa, Latin America and the Middle East are being studied as potential destinations. According to official data, flat products (hot-rolled and cold-rolled) occupy the main share in the export basket of Indian steel products. India exports rolling stock to more than 100 countries worldwide, with 25% of these exports in the 2022/2023 financial year coming from five EU countries.