In a slew of tariff changes, the Indian government has scrapped export duties on pig iron, specified iron and steel products and pellets, according to a government notification late on Friday, November 18.

As a result, 15 percent export duties from India on major longs and flat steel products, as well as pig iron, have been lowered to zero, while the export duty of 45 percent on pellets has also been scrapped. The export duty on iron ore lumps and fines with less than 58 per cent Fe content has been reduced to zero, while that on iron ore with Fe content more than 58 percent has been reduced to 30 percent from 50 percent earlier. High export duties were imposed six months ago to help redirected some needed volumes to the local Indian market, and this led to a significant reduction in exports and the lower competitiveness of Indian mills, at a time when more Asian suppliers wanted to increase their export market share.

In other changes to Indian tariffs, an import duty of 2.5 percent has been imposed on anthracite, PCI, coking coal and ferronickel used by the steel industry and five percent duty on imported coke and semi-coke, from zero earlier.