Japan, S. Korea steel exports to India rise on levy, highend demand

India is being hit by a wave of steel from producers in Japan and South Korea, a government document showed, as mills there redirect supply after US President Donald Trump slapped an import duty on the alloy earlier this year.

During the first quarter of the fiscal year starting in April, India’s steel imports from South Korea rose 31% from a year earlier, while those from Japan climbed 30%, according to an internal document from the ministry of steel that was reviewed by Reuters.

The flood of imports is so big that the government in New Delhi is considering measures to control imports, minister Chaudhary Birender Singh told Reuters.

“The concern is there, of course, and if we are to take some measures, we will not hesitate on that account,” Singh said in an interview.

Between April and June, India became a net importer of steel, with foreign supplies reaching 2.1 million tonnes, 15% higher than a year earlier, according to the note.

With the increase, the South Asian nation has now passed the United States as South Korea’s third-largest market for steel, according to data from the Korea Iron & Steel Association.

New Delhi could look at imposing safeguards, said a senior government official, who did not wish to be identified in line with government policy.

However, renewed government measures would take place despite India’s domestic steel industry being unable to meet the country’s demand for highend steel products needed for railroads and structural steel used in construction projects.

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