Importers finding gaps in India's 12% steel safeguard duty: JSW Steel's Jayant Acharya

Mint

4 days ago

Mumbai: Importers are finding ways to bypass the 12% safeguard duty on steel imports levied in April this year, leading to a rout in domestic prices, even as the import volumes come down, said Jayant Acharya, the joint managing director of JSW Steel.
One of the workarounds is the misuse of the Advance Authorization Scheme, which allows duty-free imports of raw materials for export-linked production. Importers get 18 months to export the finished product to prevent paying the safeguard duty.
Some non-automotive importers are using this scheme to buy cheaper steel from overseas and sell the finished goods in the domestic market, alleged Acharya. They are betting on the domestic prices softening during the 18-month window allowed under the scheme before eventually using local steel to make products for export, he said.
Other workarounds include buying semi-finished steel, which doesn't attract the safeguard duty, and then processing it further domestically, he said. Such imports have risen particularly from countries like Russia as well as the Asean bloc, he said.
'If there are any leakages which happen, we need to block (them)," Acharya said in an interview.
The JSW Steel executive's comments come as prices of steel in the domestic market continue to fall despite strong demand and decreasing imports. Prices of benchmark hot-rolled coils (HRC) of steel, which is used in cars and consumer durables among other things, fell to a four-month low to ₹50,700 for a tonne in June, as per data from BigMint, a market intelligence firm.
The price fall was in tandem with a fall in international steel prices, even as India's imports came down. The country imported 1.4 million tonnes of finished steel during the April-June quarter, a third less than the preceding quarter, as per an investor presentation from JSW Steel. During this period, India's steel consumption is estimated to have grown by about 7% compared with the preceding quarter at about 38.3 million tonnes.
Acharya argued that the headline trade figures do not convey the full picture. Considering steel imports arrive 1-2 months after an order is placed, the official import data fails to reflect real-time market sentiment around pricing, he said.
'Sentiment is determined by the booking of imports which happen in the month of operation. So if the booking of imports is at a lower level, that becomes a reference point for discussion with the domestic (steel producers)," he said.
Moreover, the import prices continue to influence the domestic market regardless of the quantities, he said. This means, even as import volumes narrow, the prices of domestic steel were likely to remain under pressure.
'There are other countries also which are now coming into India," he said, indicating a surge in imports from Russia and the 10-narion Asean bloc in recent months. This was because of the high tariffs in markets like the US and Europe, forcing these countries to export more to India, he said.
The steel industry contributes nearly 2% to India's GDP. JSW Steel is the largest domestic steelmaker by capacity, followed by Tata Steel, Steel Authority of India and Jindal Steel and Power.
During a post-earning interaction with analysts last week, JSW Steel's management said that it expects a favourable decision when the government reviews the safeguard duty on steel imports, both on the duration and rate. The government imposed a 12% safeguard duty on steel imports on 21 April for a period of 200 days.
Steel is a capital-intensive industry, Acharya said, pointing to the need for long-term stability in terms of tariffs to avoid exposure to global market uncertainties before making long-term investments in steel plants.
JSW Steel tripled its profits in June quarter of FY26, supported by higher production and sales volume along with easing coking coal costs, a key raw material. The steelmaker reported a profit of ₹2,209 crore compared to ₹867 crore in the same quarter a year ago. The consolidated revenue for the first quarter of FY26 was ₹43,147 crore, compared to ₹42,943 crore from the same period last year.
The Supreme Court's ruling on Bhushan Steel and Power Ltd (BPSL) won't impact their expansion plans, said Acharya. On 2 May, SC rejected JSW Steel's ₹19,700 crore acquisition of BPSL and ordered its liquidation.
The company is waiting for the apex court hearing on their review petition before undertaking a 0.5 million tonne expansion at BPSL. However, that has no bearing on their target and they are on track to achieving its 50-million-tonne-capacity by 2050.
Archarya also reaffirmed that steel demand in India is strong and is set to see an incremental growth of around 13 -14 million tonnes in FY26. This would be a rise from 144 million tonnes in FY25, as per BigMint estimates. With additional volumes kicking in from the ramp-up at JSW Vijayanagar Metallics Ltd (JVML) and the Blast Furnace 3 upgrade post-shutdown will aid the steel maker's ability to meet this growing demand.
JSW Steel is expanding its Vijayanagar plant in Karnataka by adding 5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) through its subsidiary JVML, which will bring the total capacity of the plant to 18 mtpa.
JSW Steel has a consolidated capacity of 35.7 mtpa including domestic capacity of 34.2 mtpa and 1.5 mtpa in the US.
On the cost front, the steelmaker expects to see some benefit due to the strategic steps taken, particularly in areas like coking coal. In the current quarter coking coal prices were softer but they are stabilizing now, said Acharya.
Coking coal is a key ingredient used to make steel besides iron ore. It is heated without air and turned into coke, which is used in blast furnaces to help turn iron ore into liquid iron. This iron ore is then used to make steel.
On the raw material side, 'we continue to look at startup of the new mines which we have got in the captive in Karnataka and Goa," he said, adding that their domestic coking coal mines are expected to be operational in the next few years, which will further support cost efficiencies.
The company's overseas operations are expected to improve, driven by a more favourable international pricing environment.
The steelmaker has a 1.5 mtpa electric-arc-furnace-based steel manufacturing unit in Ohio, US and a 1.75 mtpa plate and pipe production mill in Texas. In Italy, it has a 0.32 mtpa rail manufacturing unit, which is undergoing an expansion in capacity to 0.6 mtpa.