HISAR (SATISH HANDA: Large number of manufacturers producing steel products mainly steel pipes at Hisar popularly known as ‘Steel Town’ of Haryana as well as consumers decided to stop imports of steel products including steel pipes from China and make domestic steel industry self sufficient in the country. as such manufacturers of steel pipes and other steel products in China suffered a lot due to ban over import of steel from China. According to the manufacturers in city of steel Hisar, steel products including pipes manufactured in China are still arriving in our country under different brands adversely affecting the sale of indigenously manufactured steel products including steel pipes.
Information reveals, manufacturers of steel products in China are still having maximum sale in India indirectly routed via other counties including Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand and Vietnam having business relationship with India and supplying steel products originally manufactured in China under their brand. According to steel manufacturers in India, our government is providing relaxation in taxes on goods being imported from these countries procuring steel products from China. Information reveals, steel products manufacturers in China has started selling their products to steel industry in above mentioned countries for onward despatches to India under their brand. Information also reveals that manufacturers in China are setting up their own manufacturing units in these countries since buyers in most of the countries across the world are not willing to have business relations with China at present.
Deepak Gupta, Secretary North India Pipe Manufacturers Association demanded government of India should impose heavy antidumping duty and CVD on import of steel products to save domestic steel industry. He said , finished material of Grade 304 steel pipe from China is available at the price ranging between Rs 150 to 155, whereas steel pipe manufacturers in our country are procuring raw material for the same at price ranging between Rs 170 to 175 as such the same is being sold at the price of Rs 224 including GST after manufacturing as against selling price Rs 168 of steel pipe imported from China and still Indian steel pipes manufacturers are giving tough fight to the manufacturers of steel pipes in China. Gupta said, now availability of steel pipes manufactured in China are being sold by the exporters as well as manufacturers in Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and Bangladesh in our country under their brand is a big challenge to steel products manufacturers in India.
The manufacturers in the city of steel tubes told that the sale as well as profit margins of steel tubes manufacturing units have started going down rapidly. Hit by the recession and tough price war with steel manufacturers in China in past few years have been performing poorly when steel was being dumped into our country from CIS countries and Korea, the landed cost of which was lower than the steel prices in the country as such steel business in our country was adversely affected. They said, introduction of PVC tubes badly affected the sale of steel tubes industry as consumers preferred low weight PVC tubes, which snatched more than 35% share from steel pipes. Most of the steel manufacturer in Hisar told that they are forced to utilize only one third of their production capacity. They said, the world wide recession coupled with the scarcity of finance, higher power tariff, higher production cost, restricted purchase power by the farmers, slow government developments, procedural hassles and lack of government support to meet global competition and rising cost of raw material are responsible for crisis in tube steel industry which needs immediate government intervention to improve the situation.
