India’s imposition of 12 percent safeguard duty on steel imports is yielding result and total imports during fiscal 2025-26 could be reduced to half of 9.5 million mt shipping into the country in previous fiscal of 2024-25, secretary, ministry of steel, Sandeep Poundrik said in a statement on Thursday, June 19.
He said that the government has not yet decided on increasing the safeguard duty to 24 percent and the final decision would be taken based on final report of Directorate General for Trade Remedies (DGTR) expected to be submitted in August.
The safeguard duty was imposed on April 12, 2025, effective for period of 200 days.
The government will take an appropriate decision on whether to continue with the levy, increase it or lower it, based on consultations with industry stakeholders and report of the DGTR, Poundrik said.
On per capita steel consumption in the long term, he said that in the 2024-2025 it was 104 kg. By around 2030, the country should be at around 155-160 kg, and by 2035, around 200 kg or more.