By Neha Arora
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India estimates a “minor impact” from U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to increase tariffs on steel and aluminium products as the South Asian country exports low volumes to Washington, the federal steel minister said on Monday.
Trump said last week he intends to increase tariffs on imported steel and aluminium to 50% from 25% currently, spurring declines on Monday in steelmakers’ stocks in South Korea and Vietnam – major Asian exporters to the U.S.
Roughly a quarter of all steel used in the U.S.
is imported, the bulk of it from neighbours Mexico and Canada or close allies in Asia and Europe such as Japan, South Korea and Germany. India ranks much lower.
“Minor impact will be there… We are not exporting (to the U.S.) in a big way,” steel minister HD Kumaraswamy told reporters at a press briefing in New Delhi.
However, ratings agency Fitch said in March that Indian steelmakers and steel prices could be hit if countries with higher exposure to the U.S.
redirect their shipments to New Delhi in search of more lenient markets for the alloy.
(Reporting by Neha Arora in New Delhi; Writing by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
