India’s steel import juggernaut stalls; domestic prices now cheaper than Chinese shipments

India’s steel import juggernaut has finally hit the brakes. In a sharp reversal, inbound shipments slumped nearly 30 per cent year-on-year to 1.4 million tonnes (mt) in the first quarter of FY26 — a direct fallout of tightened safeguard duties. What’s more, domestic steel has regained pricing edge over Chinese imports after months of being undercut.

Prices in the home market have eased to ₹50,000–50,700 per tonne, about 2-3 per cent cheaper than landed Chinese steel, breaking a stubborn trend of price disparity.

Imports in the Q1FY25 – the year-ago period — were at 2 mt.

Decline was sharper for benchmark HRC coils, nearly 30 per cent, at 1 mt for April–June FY26, as against 1.4 mt in the year-ago-period. While in case of alloy and stainless steel offerings, the incoming shipments came down to 0.4 mt – down 30 per cent for the period under review, a Steel Ministry report accessed by businessline show.

The Ministry report said June imports came down to 0.43 mt, fell nearly 33 per cent over the same month last year while on a sequential basis (vs May), the decline was around 8 per cent (0.47 mt).

However, India remained a net importer of the metal. Exports, despite their sequential and y-o-y increase in June to 0.45 mt, was up by 30 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively. But first quarter shipments at 1.2 mt was down 5 per cent y-o-y.