According to the presentation made by the Aluminium Association of India (AAI) and reviewed by Business Standard, the Indian aluminium industry has been suffering over the years because of the unfavourable Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) that allowed China to dump a huge amount of aluminium in India.
Hence, as per the Business Standard report, the Indian aluminium companies, including Hindalco and Vedanta have asked the government to place restrictions on aluminium imports from China. Recently, executives from companies had met Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary Ramesh Abhishek and requested for quantitative restrictions on aluminium imports, which shot up over the past two years, a commerce ministry official said.
The AAI sought in the presentation “the imposition of quantitative restrictions to the tune of 70 to 80 per cent of annual average imports of the last five years, i.e. 1250 kilo tonnes per annum, to restrict increasing aluminium metal and scrap imports, in line with the US imposing imports quotas.” It also demanded that the industry should be classified as core industry with benefits.
The presentation also revealed that India had been witnessing a striking growth in aluminium imports over the past two decades, especially from nations like Malaysia and South Korea. The aluminium imports in the financial year 2017-18 stood at US$4.52 on the face of global commodity price hike, compared to US$3.47 billion in the year 2016-17. However, the largest component was the aluminium scrap, mainly originated from China.
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