The Indian Stainless Steel Development Association, whose member companies have had to lower prices by as much as Rs 10,000 per tonne in the last couple of months, has called for more stringent anti-dumping me­asures and a higher excise levy on import of stainless strips by China by an additional 5 per cent.

“In spite of the global downturn in the stainless steel industry, China has created a huge surplus capacity accounting for nearly 50 per cent of the global capacity in the production of stainless steel. There is large-scale import and dumping of cold rolled material from China in the last few months and the entire trade of stainless steel from primary manufacturers, re-rollers and patta-patti narrow flat manufacturers ha­ve come to a grinding halt,’’ NC Mathur, adviser to Jindal Steel said.

The import seems to be so huge that the governme­nt will loose a large amount of revenue collected from the stainless steel industry in the form of taxes and duties, Mathur, who is also the president of ISSDA, said.

According to him, they have received a series of distress calls from important members of the association due this alarming situation. “We would urge the government to look into this matter and on an urgent basis and ensure that such large scale imports from China are halted,’’ he said.

More than 75 per cent of stainless steel in India is used for kitchen and utensils requiring narrow width of less than 600 millimetres stainless steel cold rolled products in the form of cold and flat rolls. According to Mathur, st­ainless steel is a sensitive market and since China has a lot of surplus lying aro­und, it is sending them to India.’’