More protection to Indian steel companies |
India`s commerce ministry and steel ministry have joined hands to protect Indian steel makers, who have for long, complained of adverse impact from imports, although trade data does not suggest a massive surge in imports of the key industrial commodity. During a meeting with industry representatives, steel minister Dharmendra Pradhan and commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal extracted a promise that steel manufacturers will provide the metal at Freight On Board export price to exporters. The two ministries will notify the benchmark price from time to time, which many see as complicating the market dynamics. During the last financial year, steel imports went up 20% to $12.6 billion, although the industry is complaining of a surge from some of the countries with which India has free trade agreements - South Korea, Japan and some of the Asean nations. During the year overall imports went up by over 10%. The steel ministry is expected to issue quality control orders over the next few days for all categories of products, which will enable government to impose checks on the entry of "sub-standard" products into the country.
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