India considering measures to combat cheap aluminium imports

Piyush Goyal, Power, Coal and Mines Minister of India said at an industry event on Friday, February 3, that the government is considering taking measures on imposing of anti-dumping duties or minimum import price to combat rising imports of downstream aluminium products in India.

The government may take measures in order to protect the interests of domestic aluminium industry.

According to Goyal, "Aluminium industry has faced a lot of stress in the last one year. I believe aluminium has huge potential in India. Our neighbouring countries are giving 13 per cent subsidy to downstream aluminium products and helping them to dump those in India."

"I have had conversation with the aluminium industry. I found the imports of downstream products in India have gone up, which impacts both the primary manufacturers and the entire industry.”

"So, if we can stop the indiscriminate (dump) imports of downstream products then we would be able to give leg up to all small and medium enterprises involved in downstream industry, which will give resurgent to entire sector."

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An industry expert explained that the import duty on aluminium downstream products like food packaging foil and alloy wheel is 7.5% which is lower than levies of 12-15 per cent in other countries.

He further stated, "In the present scenario, it is difficult to crack or match with their cost of products as these countries give a lot of subsidies to their manufacturers including on transport and power."

Goyal concluded, “India cannot afford to be sitting on the side-lines and showing weakness when it comes to taking strong policy decisions. This government does not wait for any industry to die."