The government must not allow imports of aluminum products, particularly from China, without significant value addition. The pricing of such products should not be less than similar products that are domestically available. Also, these imports should attract a significant duty to protect the domestic industry, said KSS Murthy, general secretary of Aluminium Association of India (AAI).
“The cheaper imports from China are hurting the industry in general. Only products that have more than 30 per cent value addition should be allowed to be imported,” he said. Australia, which suffered due to cheaper imports, has now made stringent rules to ensure that the Chinese products are not dumped and Germany also is on the way to bring such rules, he said.
Foils, castings, extrusions are the main products that are being imported and among others automobile sector is the key user of imported aluminum products. The government should also ban the export of the bauxite without value addition. This would ensure a greater availability of the metal for domestic uses and would also keep the prices under check, he said.
Incidentally, the forging industry, which has been hit by the frequent rise in steel prices, too requested a similar action from the government to protect the domestic industry.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, he said aluminum industry was seeing big investments from big domestic players and also several MNCs, which earlier left the country are returning to the sector.
An estimated Rs 1,20,000 crore investment was envisaged in the sector by 2015. As part of its effort to increase the use of aluminum, AAI was working on an aluminum intensive bus. “Use of aluminum can reduce the weight of the bus and hence the fuel it would consume,” he said. It would also try to encourage the railways to use aluminum for the wagons apart from coaches.
AAI would conduct the sixth International Conference on Aluminium in Hyderabad from December 6 to 8, 2011.
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