Indian Stainless Steel Development Association Completes 25 Years

Indian Stainless Steel Development Association (ISSDA), the association representing the 145 stainless steel producers in India, announced today that it has completed 25 successful years of formation, at a grand conference in Delhi to commemorate this event.

Present on the occasion were Mr. Syedain Abbasi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Steel, Mr. Rattan Jindal, Chairman and Managing Director, Jindal Stainless Limited, Mr. Tim Aiken, President of Nickel Institute, Mr. Subhrakant Panda, President of ICDA, Mr. Markus Moll, Managing Director of SMR and Mr. N.C. Mathur, President, Indian Stainless Steel Development Association

The event was the culmination of an enormous collective effort which began in 1989 when the stainless steel industry was in nascent stage. From just a humble beginning, ISSDA has been persistently working to bring about substantial changes in this industry; as a result, today the domestic industry has grown from of miniscule capacity of 18 thousand tons in 1978 to nearly 2.5 million tons today.

During the event, the speakers raised the concern of rising import and dumping of Stainless Steel in India, which is effecting the domestic industry in a big way.

On this occasion - Mr. Rattan Jindal, Chairman and Managing Director, Jindal Stainless Limited Said, "As imports already control over 40 % of the domestic market and quarter by quarter dumping from countries like China and FTA countries continue to increase. The result of this surge is that today domestic industry which has installed capacity of around 4.5 million tons is operating at just 55 % of its capacity and is struggling for its very survival. Today more and more capacities are coming up for tubes and pipes in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan, implying that we can expect more dumping to happen in India in days to come.

The various leading producers of the domestic stainless steel industry raised a concern on the fact that from being a net importer of stainless steel in 2009, today China is the world's biggest exporter of Stainless Steel and we need to be wary.

Unlike India, China is enjoying benefit of low interest rates, cheap power and other governmental subsidies and support along with lenient environmental laws and zero import duty on inputs. This has given them a huge competitive advantage over other nations Mr. N.C. Mathur, President, ISSDA Said "India is today capable of producing all grades, widths and thickness of stainless steel. Industry produces plates, coils, bars and rounds with other downstream products like welded pipes, seamless tubes, mother hollows, forgings, fasteners etc and we are expecting a Hugh growth in the domestic production on account of ART (Automobile, Railway and Transport) and ABC (Architecture, Building and Construction) sector.

"I urge the government to immediately upgrade the facilities at our ports so that such things do not get repeated. Moreover, I feel there is an urgent need to establish mandatory standards in stainless steel just as there is in steel. The imbalance in duty structure other policy related issues like removal of import duty on input material like nickel and SS scrap which are not available in the country need to be highlighted. Also, existing FTA and RCEP have created needs to be explained to the government and a way out needs to be looked at" - Mr. Rattan Jindal added.

Source : Equity Bulls

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