More Stories

Informist, Wednesday, Mar. 19, 2025

NEW DELHI – The commerce ministry has recommended imposing a 12% safeguard duty on imports of steel products for 200 days to prevent the domestic industry from serious injury after a recent jump in imports, the Directorate General Of Trade Remedies said in a notification late on Tuesday. The recommendation of a safeguard duty on steel imports comes days after the US imposed a 25% tariff on all its steel and aluminium imports. 

The Directorate General Of Trade Remedies had carried out a safeguard investigation after the Indian Steel Association alleged that there was a recent, sudden, sharp, and significant increase in imports of non alloy and alloy steel flat products into India, which threatened serious injury to the domestic industry and producers of these products.

"There exist critical circumstances, where any delay in application for provisional safeguard measures would cause damage which it would be difficult to repair," the Directorate General Of Trade Remedies said. "There is a necessity for immediate application of provisional safeguard measures."  

The Directorate General Of Trade Remedies has invited comments on the preliminary findings within 30 days.

Trade Secretary Sunil Barthwal Monday said the government was still assessing the impact of the US' 25% tariff on Indian steel and aluminium sector. "We are weighing both, the opportunities as well as risks," Barthwal said. "Suppose, certain tariiffs are imposed on certain countries then there may be certain opportunities."

Fitch Raings Tuesday said that the tariffs imposed by the US on its steel imports are likely to have a limited direct impact on the operations of Indian steelmakers as their export exposure to the US is minimal. "However, a redirection of more steel exports into India from countries that have significant export exposure to the US and risks to growth in key end-use industries may pressure domestic steel prices, subject to the severity and length of such a tariff war," the rating agency said.  End

Reported by Shubham Rana

Edited by Avishek Dutta

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.

Informist Media Tel +91 (11) 4220-1000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.