A team comprising steel industry representatives will be meeting the US Department of Commerce, possibly next month, before the verdict on Section 201 of the 1974 Trade Act in February, said Arvind Pande, chairman, Steel Authority of India Ltd.
US President George Bush has asked the US International Trade Commission to investigate steel imports under Section 201.
A steel industry team, comprising sector heavyweights, led by secretary, ministry of steel, did visit the US after preliminary anti-dumping duty on hot-rolled coils (HRC) was imposed. However, the visit failed to impact the decision of the US Department of Commerce which went on to impose anti-dumping duties thereafter.
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Pande said, if the decision in this regard went against India, then the Asian market will be sole export market left open for domestic steel producers. Since the US has already levied anti-dumping duties on HRC, the move will restrict cold-rolled, galvanised and colour-coated steel products also. India exports over 100,000 tonne of these products to the US.
The International Trade Commission investigations were related to 29 products in the steel sector, which account for around 27 million tonne of the total 34 million tonne US imports.
Meanwhile, CR prices have dropped significantly in the domestic market over the last few months.
Offtake by the domestic consumer durable sector has also declined from an annual 2.5 lakh tonne. The demand has fallen by almost 25 per cent.