Tata Steel wants safeguard duty doubled, longer term to protect India’s steel ecosystem

Tata Steel has batted for the doubling of safeguard duty for a longer term as the steel industry navigates trade turmoil. In a conversation with Sambit Saha of The Telegraph, Koushik Chatterjee, ED & CFO of the company, also favoured implementing quality control orders for imported steel. He held out hope that the UK business would be cash-neutral by the end of FY26. An excerpt.

Let me answer that with some fundamentals. During the first quarter, we had lower volumes due to some planned shutdowns, including the relining of the blast furnace, maintenance shutdowns.

From Q2 onwards, the volume numbers both on production and sales will be higher sequentially. So, the operating leverage will see improvements.

The pricing scenario has become even more complex due to multiple reasons. First, the trade and tariff uncertainties across the world continue almost daily, with multiple shifting positions that put the supply chains at risk. Second, we are yet to see the trajectory of the outcomes from China’s ‘‘anti-involution” strategy of the steel sector to bring supply-side discipline not just within China but also on the seaborne side.

So, as you can see, it can’t be a binary answer. We will focus on the controllables, including the production discipline, continue our relentless focus on cost transformation and focus on customer needs.