Posted on 10 Jul 2025
India’s steel ministry is expected to defer the enforcement of its new Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) import norms for input materials used to produce finished steel products, Kallanish notes.
As per steel ministry meeting minutes seen by Kallanish, steel minister HD Kumaraswamy held a consultation with key stakeholders on 7 July. “The Ministry of Steel is aware of the concerns of shipments that have already reached / are reaching the ports in India. A suitable timeline for ensuring that there are no disruptions in clearing such consignments is being considered,” the note says.
Re-rolling steel mills abroad will be exempt, in addition to BIS-certified integrated steel mills abroad, if the input material is also from a BIS approved integrated steel mill abroad, the note adds.
The ministry has also clarified a timeline for BIS certification. It says that within two months of filing proper applications and documents by steel mills, BIS will visit the plant, and within the following two months the licence will be issued. The total timeline for getting a BIS licence is thus estimated to be around 3-4 months, as per the note.
The steel ministry did not respond to Kallanish request for confirmation on Wednesday.
On 13 June, the steel ministry issued an order stating the intermediate material for manufacturing of final products under BIS Standards will also have to have BIS licences (see Kallanish passim).
In a 2 July clarification notice, it added the order was issued to close key loopholes and that no new quality control orders (QCOs) were issued. Up to 151 QCOs have been issued thus far, of which the last QCO was issued on August 2024. It also said integrated steel mills with BIS certificates will be exempt from the order and a formal notice regarding this will be announced soon (see Kallanish passim).
Previously, imported finished steel could be certified under BIS standards even if the base material, such as billet, slab, and hot or cold rolled coil, did not comply with BIS requirements.
A deferment of the new BIS norms already exists for long products (see Kallanish passim).
Market participants say the general deferment covering all products will likely come in soon as micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) have created a lot of pressure since the implementation, deeming it “not fair”.
In June, Indian think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) said the 13 June order could deal a severe blow to the country’s MSMEs.
An advisor to the steel ministry says: “To the best of my knowledge, this [deferment of the new standards] decision has been taken. BIS has to [officially] bring out the order.”
However, sources point to slow demand as the real challenge rather than imports and are calling on the government to help generate more demand.
An industry veteran says: “We need to create further demand in the country. Government spending [on infrastructure is] down drastically [this year]. [But I expect] post-monsoon [we] can think of a recovery in prices.”
India’s flats market has seen a sharp price correction recently due to a seasonal monsoon-led demand slowdown (see Kallanish passim).
Source:Kallanish
