India’s ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel Limited (AMNS) has lodged a legal challenge against the government of India, claiming that it was incorrectly imposing import curbs retroactively, according to several reports in the local Indian media on Thursday, March 13.
The Indian government in December last year imposed curbs on imports of low-ash metallurgical coke, or met coke, with country-specific quotas to help domestic suppliers.
AMNS in turn recently in a communication to the government cautioned that continued checks on imports of steelmaking raw material would force the company to cutback output and delay its expansion projects.
AMNS challenged the Indian authorities at the Delhi High Court on March 5 for rejecting 168,300 mt of met coke import orders from Indonesia and Poland which were placed before the curbs on imports came into force, reports in India said.
AMNS said in its court filing that the Indian government rejected its import request, saying the company had sufficient quantities of met coke already, but that the decision "militates against" the country's free trade policy which allows for the import of already placed orders before restrictions are imposed, according to the media reports.