
India imposed a 15 percent export duty on finished steel on 21 May 2022, in a surprise move aimed at cooling domestic prices and taming inflation. The government also raised duties on iron ore to 50 percent and on pellets to 45 percent. India had exported 18.37 million tonnes of finished steel in the 2021-22 fiscal year, making it one of the world's largest exporters, and the duty effectively shut that trade overnight. Domestic prices fell, which was the government's aim, but mills warned that the duty would cost them export markets built up over years and push buyers towards suppliers in Japan, South Korea and China. The duty also hit raw material exporters in iron ore-rich states. The move showed how quickly a government could reverse course: only months earlier, India had been encouraging steel exports as a source of foreign exchange.
Source: SteelMint — https://www.steelmint.in/india-how-will-the-govts-new-duty-structure-impact-the-steel-raw-materials-markets-319517
Photo: Wikimedia Commons (freely licensed).
