Steelmakers have urged the government to take more measures to control rising imports from a select group of countries, including China, which produced 746.3 tonnes of crude steel in the January-September period, more than six times domestic production.
According to global body World Steel Association (worldsteel), India produced 122.4 tonnes of crude steel in January-September. While China produced 73.5 tonnes of crude steel in September alone, more than five times the 13.6 tonnes of domestic production.
According to market data, stainless steel is also unable to achieve 100 percent utilization of the total installed capacity of 7.5 million tons. Only as a result of imports does this percentage remain around 60 percent.
The government has taken several measures to curb imports to protect the competitiveness of the domestic steel industry.
In recent years, the Ministry of Steel has issued more than 100 Quality Control Orders (QCOs) that prevent non-BIS compliant steel products from entering the Indian market.
The QCO of June this year had imposed restrictions on the import of certain steel products.
“The validity of QCOs may be extended to prevent substandard and cheap materials from entering the country,” an industry player said.
The government may come up with more similar measures to protect the domestic industry, both steel and stainless steel, which is expected to bring in tens of millions in investments to increase capacity to meet future demand, in line with the government’s Atmanirbhar initiative, the industry player said.
In March, the Commerce Ministry’s research arm, DGTR, had recommended imposing an interim safeguard duty of 12 percent on certain steel products for 200 days, with an aim to protect domestic players from a surge in imports.
Following this, the stainless industry also approached the government to investigate imports of stainless steel as the safeguard duty did not address their concerns.
A high-level committee of NITI Aayog is likely to meet steel industry leaders next week on the import issue, a source said.
Domestic steel prices fell to a five-year low in October, driven by multiple factors including rising imports, according to data from BigMint.
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has noted an increase in steel imports, largely due to lower import prices. It has also called for policy support to increase the competitiveness of domestic steel production.
In September this year, India imported 0.79 million tonnes of finished steel, up from 0.69 million tonnes in August, marking the sixth month in a row that the country has been a net steel importer.
Imports from Korea, Russia and Indonesia increased, while shares from China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand and Taiwan fell compared to September 2024.
During the first half of FY26, India remained a net importer of steel, with inbound shipments exceeding exports by 0.47 tonnes. This despite a 40 percent increase in export volume to 4.43 tons.
Published on November 2, 2025
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