Government to Promote and Protect Domestic Steel Manufacturers : Faggan Singh Kulaste

Steel is a deregulated sector. Steel is produced by different processes and the production cost varies from plant to plant depending upon the input costs. To protect domestic steel industry from cheaper & dumped imports, calibration in Basic Custom Duty on steel products and raw materials along with imposition of trade remedial measures like Anti-Dumping Duty (ADD), Countervailing Duty (CVD) are undertaken to enhance competitiveness of India’s steel sector. The details of month-wise production, consumption, and export of finished steel in the country are at Annexure-I.

Government acts as a facilitator by creating enabling environment by providing policy support and guidance to steel sector. Government has taken following measures to promote and protect domestic steel manufacturers:-

1. Notification of National Steel Policy 2017 which envisages, inter-alia, domestically meeting the entire demand of steel and high-grade automotive steel, electrical steel, special steel and alloys for strategic applications.
2. Notification of Domestically Manufactured Iron & Steel Products (DMI&SP) Policy for promoting procurement of Made in India steel.
3. Notification of Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Specialty Steel with an outlay of ₹ 6,322 Crore to promote the manufacturing of specialty steel within the country by attracting capital investments.
4.  Issuance of Steel Quality Control Orders to stop manufacturing and import of non- standardized steel.

Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), a quasi-judicial body, under Department of Commerce undertakes investigations (Anti-Dumping, Countervailing, Safeguard etc.) based on the petitions filed by steel industry, as well as suo-moto, from time to time. The findings and recommendations of DGTR are analyzed by the Government for Notification keeping in view the domestic production, price and availability of such grades of steel.