Govt. Imposes Provisional Safeguard Duty on Steel Flat Products Amid Surge in Imports

The Finance Ministry has imposed a 12% provisional safeguard duty on the import of certain categories of non-alloy and alloy steel flat products. 

The measure follows a preliminary investigation by the Director General (Trade Remedies), which found a sharp and recent surge in imports of the concerned goods, causing and threatening to cause serious injury to the domestic industry.

The subject goods under the ambit of this measure include:

• Hot Rolled coils, sheets, and plates
• Hot Rolled Plate Mill Plates
• Cold Rolled coils and sheets
• Metallic Coated Steel coils and sheets, including those coated with zinc, aluminium-zinc, or zinc-aluminium-magnesium
• Colour Coated coils and sheets, whether or not profiled

These goods fall under tariff headings 7208, 7209, 7210, 7211, 7212, 7225, and 7226 of the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975.

The Directorate General noted that there has been a recent, sudden, sharp, and significant increase in the imports of the subject goods into India. The increased imports have caused and are threatening to cause serious injury to domestic producers. Critical circumstances exist that warrant immediate intervention to prevent damage that would be difficult to reverse.

Based on these findings, the DGTR recommended the imposition of provisional safeguard measures.

Import Price Threshold Exemptions:

However, the safeguard duty shall not be applicable on imports that meet or exceed specific import price thresholds on a CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight) basis, as detailed below:

Nothing contained in this notification shall apply to imports of subject goods from countries notified as developing countries under sub-section (2) of section 8B of the Customs Tariff Act, other than China PR and Viet Nam.

4. The safeguard duty imposed under this notification shall be effective for a period of two hundred days (unless revoked, superseded or amended earlier) from the date of publication of this notification in the Official Gazette and shall be payable in Indian currency.

Notification Details

Notification No. 01/2025-Customs (SG)

Date: 21/04/2025

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