AAI meets Mines Ministry for minimum import price protection for aluminium

Indian aluminium industry giants have once again come forward to nudge the government to take some decisive steps against cheap aluminium imports that have been flooding the Indian market for a while now.

After the Centre gifted the domestic steel industry some relief from the onslaughts of cheap imports by introducing minimum import price on select steel products, the aluminium industry has now upped the ante in their demand for a similar relief that would help protect the interest of several primary producers in the country.

Industry body, Aluminium Association of India, met Mines Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday, August 18, with a proposal seeking interim relief from cheap imports or imposition of minimum import price to protect the domestic aluminium industry. The association boasts representation from companies like Vedanta Ltd., Hindalco Ltd., National Aluminium Company Ltd., Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd. and others.

The association has been lobbying for import duty hike on aluminium since long; In Thursday's meeting it raised red flags about increasing cheap imports from China and West Asia, all over again.

The Director General of Safeguards, in a similar meeting earlier, had recommended imposition of 5 per cent safeguard duty on imported unwrought aluminium for 200 days.

India Mines Minister Piyush Goyal, who agreed on the fact that India could become self-reliant if imports were reduced, said: “Putting up safeguard duty is for finance ministry and Commerce Ministry to work on. We work on giving data for the industry. I am sure aluminium companies are in dialogue with ministries concerned. Will consider all data and give our validation of the data to concerned ministries regarding aluminium sector.”

Tom Albanese, CEO, Vedanta Resources, who attended the meeting, emphasised on the need to protect domestic aluminium companies like Vedanta aiming at expanding their capacity to the fullest in the coming quarters.

“It was quite clear from the minister that he does not want this to be seen walling around. He expressed to us the sense of emergency. What he asked us to do was to refresh our proposals, had particular questions and wants documentation on the same. In particular, he wanted to see if we were working with aluminium consumers rather than having two different points of view. The ministry and government officers saw that we are looking for solutions not just on our own but with consumers on board,” said Albanese.

Satish Pai, Managing Director of Hindalco, too, sounded confident that the government will work towards introducing safeguards in the aluminium industry.

“India’s growth story cannot be hijacked by cheap imports from China and other countries. We are looking at filing anti-dumping and countervailing duty applications soon. Almost 50 per cent of aluminium consumed in India is being imported and we need to reduce that going forward,” said Pai.

Although no clear timeline has been set by the government for a possible roll-out of Minimum Import Price (MIP) for the aluminium sector, Albanese said, “I would like to see something happening in next two weeks.”

Hindalco’s Pai somewhat echoed his observation. He said, “We are hoping that the government will move fast but I don’t think we can give any timeline for that.”

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