Anti-dumping duty likely on certain Chinese steel products-:- Equity Research

The commerce ministry has recommended imposition of anti-dumping duty on imports of steel wire rods from China to protect the interest of domestic players from cheap in-bound shipments. In its preliminary findings, the directorate general of anti-dumping and allied duties (DGAD) has recommended the duty. DGAD has suggested that for certain Chinese companies, the duty should be the difference between the landed value of the steel products and USD 499 per tonne while for others, it should be the gap between the landed value and USD 538 per tonne. The duty was recommended on imports of 'wire rod of alloy or non-alloy steel', which is used in many applications and sectors such as automotive components, welding electrodes, fasteners, including nuts and bolts, nails, railway sleepers, general engineering, binding wires for construction industry and armoured cables. Steel Authority of India, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, Usha Martin and JSW Steel had jointly filed the application to probe the dumping of these products from China. In its findings, DGAD concluded that the product has been exported to India at "below the normal value" due to which "the domestic industry has suffered material injury". "The authority recommends imposition of provisional anti-dumping duty... so as to remove the injury to the domestic industry," DGAD said in a notification. Imports of these steel products have drastically increased to 4,95,732 tonnes during the period of investigation (July- December 2015) from 1,60,582 tonnes in 2012-13. India has already slapped anti-dumping duty on certain cold-rolled flat steel products from four nations, including China and South Korea. While DGAD recommends the duty to be levied, the finance ministry imposes it. Countries initiate anti-dumping probes to determine if the domestic industry has been hurt by a surge in below-cost imports. As a counter-measure, they impose duties under the multilateral WTO regime. Anti-dumping measures are taken to ensure fair trade and provide a level-playing field to the domestic industry. They are not a measure to restrict imports or cause an unjustified increase in cost of products.