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

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.

Balvinder Kumar of Mines Secretary commented: "The government is considering imposing MIP on aluminium… Either on this Monday or Tuesday, the Mines Ministry will send its recommendations to the Commerce Ministry."


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.

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’s annual aluminium consumption. Annually, India consumes three million tonnes of aluminium while produces four million tonnes.

{googleAdsense}

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.

In 2015, the imports of aluminium have gone up to 159 per cent vs. 211 levels, according to industry sources.