The final withdrawal of the BIS restrictions on import of 33 steel items by the DGFT notification of 28 October 2003 marks the end of protection by a QR type barrier to hot rolled and cold rolled steel sheets. The restriction remained in place for nearly three years. During this period, the only way to import hot rolled and cold rolled steel was through the advance licence route against export orders for down stream items.

In the original 44-RE notification which clamped compulsory BIS registration on 33 steel items, the main hit was taken by hot rolled and cold rolled steel sheets, structural sheets, and tool and die steel. In the alloy steel category, alloy steel billets and slabs for forgings and stainless steel for utensils took the major brunt of the protection measure.

Our analysis shows that the import of hot rolled and cold rolled steel fell sharply by Rs 300 crores to just Rs 1200 crores in the year 2000-2001. The rise in global price in year 2000 and the subsequent crash were the main factors in the fall of imports. In the subsequent two years ending March 2003, the rise was only 25 percent above the 1999-2000 level, even as global price crashed. The BIS standard and the minimum landed price on imports from low cost Ukraine.