The Indian government is studying the request for imposing a temporary tax on China steel imports, the JSW Group chairman said on Wednesday, adding that it could get regulatory approval for the initial public offering of its cement business by January end.
“We have been very patient with the steel ministry,” said Sajjan Jindal, referring to the industry’s requests to the government for protection against the dumping of Chinese steel in the country.
“We are trying to convince the government to stop the circumvention of Chinese steel coming via the Free Trade Agreement countries into India,” Jindal said on the sidelines of an industry event in Bengaluru.
“The process for studying requests on temporary tax is on consultation with the user industry. We haven’t heard back (from the ministries) yet,” he added.
Indian steel mills have been grappling with a higher influx of Chinese steel imports, hitting domestic prices and denting companies’ earnings.
The country’s finished steel imports during April-October hit a seven-year high at 5.7 million metric tons, per provisional government data.
Higher Chinese steel in the country would mean that steel margins would remain thin, while not much surplus would be left for investments and capacity additions, Jindal added.
Earlier this month, peer Tata Steel’s CEO, TV Narendran said that prolonged steel imports could hurt the industry’s investment plans.