India lowers antidumping duty on met coke imports; measure valid for five years

India has lowered the antidumping duty on met coke imports from several countries and set the duty's validity for five years, according to a Ministry of Finance notice dated July 27.

Imports of low ash met coke with an ash content below 18% — under HS Codes 27040010, 27040020, 27040030, 27040090 — face lower antidumping duties, the notice said.

The notice exempts ultra-low phosphorous met coke having phosphorous content up to 0.030 per cent with size up to 30 millimeters with 5% size tolerance, imported by an actual user for use in ferroalloy manufacturing, semi-coke or soft coke and low ash coke of size 20-40 mm imported by an actual user for use in blast furnaces up to 130 cubic meters for pig iron manufacturing, subject to customs authorities' undertaking requirements.

While the final antidumping duties remained unchanged from recommended duties announced in late April, market participants had been uncertain on how long the duties would be imposed for. "The antidumping duty imposed under this notification shall be effective for a period of five years from the date of imposition of the provisional antidumping duty, unless revoked, amended or superseded earlier, and shall be payable in Indian currency," the notice said.

"At least there's a longer period of certainty ... but it seems five years is pretty long," an Asian coke producer said. "Not too sure what to make of it at this point, but at least there's still chance for exports (to India)."

Some market participants were expecting the duties to drop more than the recommended value on market talks that the steel mills had earlier requested the government for relief in the raw material's price.

"This is very discouraging news for steel mills as raw material has to be free of any tariffs for steel to be competitive in the global market," an international coke trader said.

Nevertheless, Indian steel mills have largely favored antidumping duties over the country-specific import quota regime that was in place throughout last year, as evidenced by the sharp rise in imports since quotas were replaced with antidumping duties at the start of the year.

India's coke imports from top supplier Indonesia jumped to 1.22 million metric tons over January-May, a 100% increase from the same period last year of 607,992 mt, according to the latest data from S&P Global Market Intelligence's Global Trade Analytics Suite.

"In general, this will create pressure on Indonesian [coke] as Indian buyers are not considering [buying above] $295/mt CFR India levels," the international coke trader said.

Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, assessed 65/63 CSR met coke FOB Indonesia at $281/mt July 27, lower by $1/mt day over day. Platts assessed seaborne 65/63 CSR met coke prices on a CFR India basis, steady day over day, at $299/mt July 27.