Heavy industries minister Geete to meet FM to discuss cheap steel imports issue

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Heavy Industries Minister Anant Geete will be meeting within a week to discuss the "tough conditions" faced by domestic steel producers thanks to cheap imports, mainly from China and Korea, Geete said.  

"We will meet (the) Finance Minister within a week and inform him about the tough conditions being faced by steel industry due to cheap imports. Then it is on the Finance Minister to take a decision on this issue," Geete told PTI.

Earlier this month, the government increased the import duty on certain long and flat steel products by up to 2.5%. While the import duty on flat steel products was raised to 10% from the earlier 7.5%, the duty on long steel products was up from 5% to 7.5%. 

This includes non-alloy flat products, alloy sheet flat, semis, non-alloy and large alloy flat, among others.

The move is expected to help domestic steel producers who are battling cheap imports from countries such as China and Korea.

This month alone, India has slapped an anti-dumping duty of up to $316 per tonne on imports of certain steel products from three countries, including China, to protect domestic producers from poorly priced inbound shipments.