According to the notification, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade has imposed import restrictions on low-ash metallurgical coke for a six-month period from January 1 to June 30, 2025.
The DGFT said the move is in line with the recommendations of the Directorate General for Trade Remedies made in April this year.
According to the Global Trade Research Initiative, a think tank, the quota system will significantly limit imports from some countries compared to actual imports in 2023-2024.
GTRI Founder Ajay Srivastava said, “For example, in terms of annual quotas, 67.6% of actual imports come from Australia, 28% from China, 21.4% from Indonesia, 31.2% from Singapore, and 80.2% from Russia. %, and only 42.2% from Switzerland.”
Countries subject to import restrictions include Australia, China, Colombia, Indonesia, Japan, Poland, Qatar, Russia, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
According to the DGFT notification, “Imports of low ash metallurgical coke will be under restriction as per each country’s QR for a period of six months from January 1, 2025 to June 30, 2025.”
The notification stated that imports will be allowed only in the absence of a permit issued by the DGFT for a particular country for a period of six months.
However, high ash coke with an ash content greater than 18% is outside this limit.
By country, the suppression amount is 5,06,336 tons in Poland, 2,49,771 tons in Colombia and 2,09,980 tons in Japan, while it is 89,182 tons in Russia and 81,774 tons in Switzerland.
China’s quantitative limit is 78,646 tonnes, while Indonesia’s limit is 66,364 tonnes, Australia’s 51,276 tonnes, Singapore’s 46,478 tonnes and other countries’ limits are 45,662 tonnes.
During this period, the government will only allow the import of 76 tonnes of low ash metallurgical coke from the UK, while 1,620 tonnes will be allowed to be imported from Qatar.
Specific quantitative restrictions will be imposed on imports in two quarters next year: January-March and April-June.
It added that country-specific quantitative restrictions will come into effect from January 2025 and will automatically end on June 30 next year.
“Procedures for seeking import license from DGFT, if required, shall be notified separately,” the ministry said, adding that import applications can be submitted on the DGFT website.
Certain conditions apply to these imports. Importation via electronic data interchange ports is permitted only for the purpose of facilitating electronic/real-time monitoring of assigned quotas.
Quantity limits will be monitored quarterly to ensure that the total import volume does not exceed the specified quantity.
