US Steel Tariffs Offer Opportunity To India As Well

New Delhi: The Trump administration’s hike in tariffs on steel imports coming into the US from countries such as Canada, Brazil, the EU and Asian suppliers like Japan and South Korea could cut both ways for India’s domestic steel industry, according to an ICRA report released on Wednesday.

While, on the one hand, they may open up a portion of the US market for India’s steel exports, on the other hand, the surplus steel produced by Japan and South Korea may be diverted to the Indian market, where they will depress prices and hurt the domestic industry, the report points out.

The report states that deliveries of about four million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to the US from Asian suppliers like Japan and South Korea, which till now had preferential market access, could be partly bounced off to high-growth markets like India.

Already, these two countries rank among the top three steel exporters to India, accounting for 40-55 per cent of India’s overall finished and semis steel imports.