It's been reported: According to government statistics, China continues to remain as the largest steel supplier to India, followed by Japan and South Korea. The steel imports from China had accounted for 36% of the total steel imports by the country during 2014. The latest data shows that Chinese steel exports to India surged higher by 62% year-on-year during April this year.

As per JPC data, the country’s finished steel output during April-June ’15 quarter of the year totaled 23.7 million tons, rising by 2.8% year-on-year. Among steel producers, state-owned Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Tata Steel reported increased quarterly production. SAIL’s finished steel output jumped higher by 4.6% to 2.53 million tons. Tata Steel’s output increased marginally by 0.3% over the previous year to 2.18 million tons. On the other hand, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) recorded 4.2% yearly drop in production during the quarter. RINL’s finished steel output totaled 634,000 tons during April-June quarter of 2015.

Meantime, the country, for the second time during the current year, has increased tariffs on steel imports, in a move to protect domestic steel sector by preventing cheap imports from China. The import tariff rate of flat steel products for automotive industry has been hiked from 10% to 12.5%. Also, imports of long steel products for construction industry will now have a tariff of 10% in place of earlier 7.5%.