Welcoming the Budget proposal of reducing the custom duty on stainless steel scraps to zero,the industry on Monday said it will make imports cheaper and benefits of it will be passed on to the customers. "We are happy that our long pending demand has been met this time. This will make our steel products more competitive. This will definitely be passed on to the customers," JSL (Formerly Jindal Stainless) Advisor N C Mathur said. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee,in his Budget,on Monday brought down the custom duty on scraps to zero and kept it at 2.5 per cent on the imports of ferro nickle. Mathur added "benefits of the cheap import will be available by March-end,by then the existing inventory (on which import duty has already been paid) will get cleared". JSL is the largest stainless steel producer in the country and currently has a production capacity of about 7.2 lakh tonnes per annum. State-run Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL),which produces about 1.46 lakh tonnes of stainless steel in its Salem plant,also welcomed the move. "The reduction of customs duty on stainless steel scraps and ferro nickle is a welcome move as it will make a positive impact and boost the domestic production," SAIL Chairman C S Verma said. "This will provide an advantage to domestic producers and their operating margins will go up due to zero import duty,while end users will pay lower prices,making their products more competitive," said Y P S Suri,India head of Outokumpu,which is among the leading stainless steel makers of the world. Currently,India is the fourth largest stainless steel producer of the world,with a production of about 2.6 million tonnes of finished steel in 2010. However,usage of scraps in the country in making finished products is only about 12 per cent and it imports about 2.5 lakh tonnes of scraps per annum. On the other hand,the global average is in the range of 30 to 50 per cent. Moreover,the ferro nickle imports,are only about 30,000 tonnes per annum.
