Govt Has been Able to Protect Local Steel Players from Dumping, Low Prices: Piyush Goyal

India is poised to contribute significantly to global steel demand, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday while emphasising that the government has been able to protect the domestic steel industry from unfair dumping and irrationally low pricing.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Steel India 2025 event here, jointly hosted by the Ministry of Steel and industry body Ficci, Goyal also said both exporters and the MSME sector will continue to get steel at international prices.

"India is consistently focused on self-reliance (Atmanirbharta). But when we talk about Atmanirbharta, we are not closing the doors to the world. We are in fact opening the doors wider because every country will have its competitive advantages for different products," he said.

The Indian steel industry is a very highly efficient and cost-effective, high-quality producer, the Union Commerce and Industry Minister said.

"Therefore we believe that this is one sector where we will not only meet the growing needs of India as it grows into a developed nation by 2047, but we will also be meeting the needs of the world in a very, very competitive environment," the minister stated.

"India is poised to contribute significantly to global steel demand, and grow the steel industry by leaps and bounds," Goyal said.

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On the government's recent imposition of a 12 per cent safeguard duty on steel imports, he said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is always vigilant and proactive to support Indian industry against unfair trading practices.

"But we also balance the demands and needs of the customer. And therefore. We have been able to protect the steel industry from unfair dumping of steel and irrationally low prices that was detected through the quasi judicial inquiry that was done by the DGTR," Goyal said.

At the same time, as a part of this move, the minister said exporters and the MSME sector will continue to get steel at international prices.