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Indian Stainless Steel Development Association’s (ISSDA’s) president -- K K Pahuja has termed the government's move to impose duty on steel products as knee jerk action which came as a shock to domestic steel industry. On May 21, the government announced waiving of customs duty on the import of some raw materials, including coking coal and ferronickel, used by the steel industry. Also, the duty on exports of iron ore was hiked by up to 50 per cent and on a few steel intermediaries to 15 per cent.

Pahuja said the knee jerk action of imposing 15 per cent export duty came as a shock to domestic steel industry, which was charting new capex plans to meet government's ambitious target of doubling steel capacity to 300 million tonnes by 2030. He stated the government's objective behind the move was to cool down steel prices. However, the prices anyway had started showing a downward trend.

However, he hailed the government's decision to reduce customs duty on certain imported raw materials. The impact of export duty on stainless steel industry is much harsher and unwarranted. In case of flat rolled products of stainless steel of width 600 mm or more (HS Code 2019), the government had already revoked countervailing duty on imports from China and Indonesia since February 2021, facilitating a free flow of subsidised stainless steel flat products from Chinese companies. The imports from these two countries reached an all-time high of 7,72,000 tonnes in 2021-22, constituting over 25 per cent of the domestic consumption. Indian stainless steel manufactures have been trying to tackle this unfair competition from Chinese companies by raising exports.