By Ha Man-joo, India correspondent, AsiaToday - Korea exported 60,300 tons of finished steel to India in the first quarter (April-June) of the current fiscal, Indian government revealed on August 3. This is almost 23% of total finished steel of 257,000 tons imported by India.

According to the Indian steel industry officials, Korean steel is mainly produced by both POSCO and Hyundai Steel.

Among the imported finished steel, Chinese steel lead the tally with 723,000 tons followed by Korean, and  Japan (590,000 tons). China, Korea, and Japan together accounted for nearly 75% of the total finished steel imported by India.

Following the three countries, Ukraine (95,340 tons), Germany (89,070tons), Indonesia (83,300 tons), Russia (56,720 tons), and Taiwan (44,840 tons) were the other exporters of finished steel to India.

India's Steel and Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar submitted the report to the Indian House on the same day, and said, "Some domestic steel manufacturers and other stake holders have represented against the surge in imports of steel."

In order to protect domestic steel industry, Indian government has been conducting Steel and Steel Product (Quality Control) Order since March 2013. In June, India imposed anti-dumping duty of $316 per ton on imports of stainless hot rolled steel sheets from China, Malaysia, and Korea. Besides, the government raised basic customs duty (BCD) on some long and flat steel products by 2.5%. Accordingly, import taxes on flat steel products and long steel products were increased to 10% and 7.5%, respectively.

Despite the protective measures, imports grew 71% to 9,320,000 tons in 2014-15 compared to 2013-14 due to India's economic boom.