ArcelorMittal Nippon sues India over raw material imports as fight escalates

NEW DELHI: ArcelorMittal’s India joint venture has sued New Delhi for rejecting imports of a steelmaking raw material, saying it was incorrectly imposing import curbs retroactively, escalating its fight over a policy change that is hurting its business, documents show.

India’s government imposed curbs on imports of low-ash metallurgical coke, or met coke, starting in January, with country-specific quotas to help domestic suppliers. That has spooked big players like ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India which are concerned about quality issues with local met coke.

ArcelorMittal Nippon has already warned New Delhi privately that it may have to severely curtail steelmaking and delay any expansions due to the curbs.

In an escalation of the tussle, the company challenged Indian authorities at the Delhi High Court on March 5 for rejecting 168,300 million tonnes of met coke import orders from Indonesia and Poland which were placed before the restrictions kicked in.

India’s government rejected its import request, saying the company had sufficient quantities of met coke already, but that decision “militates against” the country’s free trade policy which allows for the import of already placed orders before restrictions are imposed, ArcelorMittal Nippon said in its court filing, which Reuters is the first to report.