India’s quality control order, which bans the production or sale in the domestic market of various steel products not bearing the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) quality mark, has come into force from 18 March.

The order, named the Steel and Steel Products (Quality Control) Order 2015, was amended last week under the name Steel and Steel Products (Quality Control) (Amendment) Order 2016 to include the effective date. It was initially drafted last December (see Kallanish 18 December).

Some products covered by the new regulation will only be controlled starting 18 September. These include cold rolled sheet and strips of CR1, CR2, CR3, CR4 and CR5 grades; and hot rolled sheet and strips of HR1, HR2, HR3, HR4 and HR5 grades. Also included are bloom, billet and slab of 15C8, 30C8, 35C8, 45C8, 55C8 and 65C6 grades; and hot rolled flats for structural forming purposes of 205, 235, 255, 325, 355, 420 and 560 grades.

Some hot rolled bars for production of bright bars and machined parts, and some hot rolled strip for welded pipemaking as well as cold rolling will also only be controlled from 18 September.

The order encompasses some types of bar and wire rod, hot and cold rolled coil, plate, wire, billet and slab. The full list of HS codes is available on the steel ministry website. It is thought that the order will initially be more effective at curtailing imports than safeguard measures because most steel suppliers to India will not immediately possess the BIS mark.

Besides hiking customs duties and introducing safeguard duties on various steel product imports in the last twelve months, India imposed in February a minimum import price (MIP) of $341-752/tonne across various steel products (see Kallanish 8 February).