India plans new steel standards to protect local industry from Chinese dumping

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. In a move to curb cheap Chinese steel imports and protect the domestic industry, the government is planning to bring additional steel products under the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) framework. The plan also involves expanding the classification of existing steel standards to prevent products with minor variations from escaping scrutiny during imports, two persons aware of the development said.

The new standards as well as expanded definition of existing steel grades would be finalized in the next six months so that unrestricted imports of cut-price steel is checked, particularly from China, which has emerged as the number one source of steel dumping in India. Also read | BIS, Vietnam probe cloud steel imports An import is said to be dumped when it is sold at lower than the cost of production. “We are saying that all the categories of that have slight variations from the defined BIS standards, they should be included in one of the steel grades.

If any grade is still left, we have asked BIS to define standards for them so that most of the steel being imported form part standards," said the first person quoted above. “In six months’time, we want that almost all grades are covered under BIS standards so that there is no need for no-objection certificate (NOC) from the steel ministry for imports. Such NOC, thereafter, will be given only in cases where a particular steel grade is not made in India and the quantity of imports is too small," said the second person.