Indian seamless pipe makers seek safeguard protection from Chinese imports
PTI reported that according to an industry insider, India's INR 15,000 crore seamless pipe industry is staring at a spectre of large scale job cuts and plant shutdowns due to dumping by China at rock bottom prices in the Indian as China is facing anti dumping and safeguard duties from countries like the US, the European Union, Canada, Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico and is also saddled with a large inventory due to subdued demand back home resulting in China's steel seamless pipe producers to export products to India at low prices
As per report “Seamless steel pipes are sold by domestic companies at about INR 47,000-50,000 per tonne, while Chinese products are being sold at about INR 25,000-30,000 a tonne.”
As per report, Indian seamless pipe makers such as Maharashtra Seamless, Jindal Saw and Indian Seamless Metal Tubes are witnessing almost no demand for their products in the domestic market due to large scale availability of cheap products from China leading to plant shutdowns and job losses. So far Maharashtra Seamless has shut down one facility and retrenched up to 800 people followed by ISMT with up to 500 jobs and Jindal Seamless with up to 300. Besides, both Jindal Saw and ISMT are running at only 15 per cent of their total capacity. BHEL also produces these products to meet part of its requirement
Association of Seamless Pipes and Tubes Vice President Mr S Sarkar told PTI that “If this situation continues for another 2-3 months, we will see as much as 8,000 direct jobs being lost and much more indirect job cuts, besides plant shutdowns. We will have no other option but to take such a step to. That apart, such a scenario also jeopardises up to Rs 8,000 worth of loans that these companies took for capacity expansion and other works. How can we compete with the Chinese, who are selling at rock bottom prices of Rs 30,000 a tonne when our raw material costs comes at around Rs 31,000 per tonne. It is not possible. Now only if government steps in with Anti-dumping or Safeguard Duty the industry would have some chance to compete.”
The Indian seamless pipes industry with a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes provides employment to a total of 25,000 people of which 12,000-15,000 are directly employed.
China has a capacity of about 25 million tonnes, of this only about 15 million tonnes is absorbed in the domestic market
Incidentally, the Indian government has imposed safeguard duty on the import of seamless pipes and tubes in August 2014. According to a notification issued by the Central Board of Excise and Custom (CBEC), safeguard duty was imposed at the rate of 20 per cent in the first year (August 13, 2014-August 12, 2015), 10 per cent in the second year (August 13, 2015-August 12, 2016) and at the rate of 5 per cent in the third year (August 13, 2016-February 12, 2017). This was not applicable on imports from developing countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and South Africa, besides others.
Source : PTI