Posted on 02 Apr 2015
Continued steel import from China may prove detrimental to domestic production as well as to the 'Make in India' concept, a top official of Tata Steel said on Wednesday.
Tata Steel managing director-India and South East Asia T V Narendran expressed apprehension that import of steel from China may prove detrimental to the Indian production, particularly to the concept of Make in India.
Mr Narendran, who was accompanied by Koushik Chatterjee, group director (finance and corporate) of the company, said market situation was not good and continued import of steel from China may have adverse impact on its Indian operation.
"We have discussed the issue with the Union Steel Minister at Rourkela today and the government was also serious about it," he said.
Mr Narendran also said commissioning Kalinganagar project in Odisha was the other major challenge it would be a first-hand experience for him to commission a Greenfield project.
He said the commissioning activity would begin in the next couple of weeks, while the main commissioning of the project would be done in the middle of Monsoon, which was another challenge.
Besides, Mr Narendran said, market competitiveness was also a challenge for Tata Steel.
Referring to the raw-material issue in view of the closure of some iron-mines, he said, it had affected the company's production cost.
During the meeting with the Union Steel Minister on Wednesday, where the SAIL chairman was also present, Mr Narendran said they have demanded for safe guard duty as protection to anti-dumping issue.
Unless the government assured protective measures such as safe guard duty, anti-dumping might prove detrimental for local steel producers, he said.
On an annual basis, the export of steel was around 40 million tonnes (MT), but it had touched 92 MT in 2014 and 10 million tonnes in January last, he said adding, it indicated that China's export may cross 100 million tonnes soon.
Mr Narendran said in last few months, at least 30 to 40 countries including Thailand and Indonesia have taken steps to ensure that local industries do not suffer because of the flood of export from China.
"Though the government has increased custom duty to 15 per cent, there isn't any effective change seen till date," he regretted.
Mr Narendran said the India steel sector being a capital intensive sector, industries needed some support such as safe guard duty to deal with anti-dumping issue.
Justifying the demand, he strongly advocated for value addition as India has raw-material and market.
