Jolted by u s tariffs stainless steel players turn to local market

Jolted by u s tariffs stainless steel players turn to local market

Exports gone haywire due to lack of clarity at all ends, rue producers; fear of dumping by China a big concern for domestic manufacturers.

Hit by the U.S. tariff action, the Indian stainless-steel industry is looking domestically to absorb a bulk of their production that was earmarked for exports to the U.S.

Due to confusion and lack of clarity, exports of stainless steel have been impacted, with the industry finding new ways to deal with the situation. Though U.S. President Donald Trump has paused the reciprocal tariff for 90 days, the 25% tariff imposed on steel and aluminium imports, announced days before, still exists. “When it comes to tariff, it has made a massive impact for our company and the industry in general. There’s no clarity because things are changing dramatically every single day. There is no clarity from the customer end or from our end. So, it has led to a global shift in steel trade,” Yash Mehta, CEO, Rajputana Stainless Ltd. Told The Hindu.

“The tariffs may change and the fear of tariffs changing is causing instability. For now, the challenge is the uncertainty in the mind of both the customers and the vendors, which is India and America for now. Since the last 15 to 20 days, there is silence or probably we would say there is no real business conversation happening with America. So, we see a little pause as of now,” he added. “And the second concern for Indian market is dumping, because China, being the biggest manufacturer of steel, will definitely try to dump into countries like India, which is again a massive concern for Indian stainless-steel manufacturers,” he pointed out.

Mr. Mehta said 10-15% of his company’s production was directly or indirectly exported to the U.S. Now, he said, he was looking at the domestic market to utilise that capacity.

“It [volume earmarked for U.S. market] is going to be mostly consumed in the domestic market and the Middle East market which is pretty decent. The dumping by China to be one fear, we will have the full picture in the next three to four months,” he said. Industry players said they would deliberate on these subjects at the GSSE Summit which is scheduled in June, 2025 to deal with the situation.

A segment of the industry believes that the U.S. would continue to import at high duty as they do not have any immediate manufacturing capacity coming up to meet their own consumption.

The domestic demand for stainless steel is rising steadily because of search for sustainable materials. It is increasingly being used in railways, infrastructure projects and processing industries.

“The demand for stainless steel is definitely on the rise. Various private and government sector projects are increasingly using stainless steel,” said C.P. Mangal, Director, Mangalam Worldwide Ltd.