India's Mines Ministry moves to fast-track MIP on aluminium

<p>The Indian government announced Friday, January 13, that it is considering imposing a minimum import price (MIP) on aluminium. The MIP will help check excess cheap aluminium imports from the international market that have been hurting the bottomlines of the domestic primary producers. <br /><br />Balvinder Kumar of Mines Secretary commented: "The government is considering imposing MIP on aluminium&hellip; Either on this Monday or Tuesday, the Mines Ministry will send its recommendations to the Commerce Ministry."<br /><br /><img style="vertical-align: middle; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://www.alcircle.com/uploads/images/rods.jpg" alt="News" width="517" height="226" /><br />In August 2016, Aluminium Association of India met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley seeking government action against cheap imports in the form of an MIP on aluminium. According to a report that they produced later, made by Mecon Engineering and MIP would help protect them from the onslaughts of cheap imports. <br /><br />According to industry body, China, the largest manufacturers and consumer of metals, is exporting additional aluminium and sluggish local demand. China contributes to around 50 per cent to India&rsquo;s annual aluminium consumption. Annually, India consumes three million tonnes of aluminium while produces four million tonnes.<br /><br />{googleAdsense}<br /><br />As per industry report, primary aluminium producers experienced losses of almost around INR 4,025 crore in the last fiscal, higher than INR 1,480 crore in 2014-15.<br /><br />In 2015, the imports of aluminium have gone up to 159 per cent vs. 211 levels, according to industry sources.</p>