DSG rejects plea for safeguard duty on stainless steel import

The Directorate General of Safeguards (Customs & Central Excise) has rejected a plea for imposing safeguard duty on imported stainless steel products saying there is no credible evidence to show that imports have hurt domestic players.
In November, Jindal Stainless Ltd (JSL) made a plea to the watchdog for imposing safeguard duty on imports of cold rolled flat product of stainless steel of chromium type, 400 Series to "protect the domestic producers against serious injury caused by the increased imports".
However, DSG has said: "The applicant industry has presented no credible evidence to make out a case of serious injury. Furthermore, it has withheld crucial injury information on a number of factors apart from the fact that the facts presented in the application itself do not make out a case of serious injury."

The DSG order dated March 23 said that "injury" to JSL is not because of increase in imports but several internal factors like new plant set up in Odisha - leading to high startup costs and excess capacity leading to extra inventory and sales at lower price.
It further said that "India has already imposed anti- dumping duty on imports of Cold Rolled Flat Products of Stainless Steel - 400 series from Korea RP, Thailand, China PR, EU, USA, South Africa and Taiwan".
When contacted, a JSL spokesperson said, "We are very surprised with the order and concerned at the same time. When the government is promoting Make In India, it also needs to take care of these things."

DSG's examination included written submissions from Maruti Suzuki, Hero Motocorp, Japan's Nippon Steel, Korean major POSCO and several government and industrial bodies of different nations from which India imports.
The DSG order said that though the demand has gone up, domestic players could not increase production in spite of installing of significant capacities as a result of which imports surged.