India Anti-Dumping Probe on Transformer Steel May Raise Grid Costs - GTRI

India’s anti-dumping investigation into imports of Cold Rolled Grain Oriented electrical steel and amorphous metal from China, Japan, South Korea and Russia could raise transformer costs and complicate power-grid expansion, Global Trade Research Initiative said in a report.

The Directorate General of Trade Remedies initiated the probe on Jun 22 after a complaint by JSW JFE Electrical Steel Nashik Pvt Ltd., the country’s only domestic producer of CRGO steel, GTRI said. The investigation covers imports during Apr. 1, 2025-Mar. 31, 2026, while the injury analysis covers 2022-23 to 2024-25.

CRGO steel is used in the magnetic core of every power and distribution transformer and is critical to reducing energy losses during electricity transmission. Demand is expected to rise as India invests ₹9.15 trillion to expand its power grid by 2032, adding 191,000 circuit kilometres of transmission lines and more than doubling transformer capacity to 2,342 GVA.

India imports nearly 90% of its annual CRGO requirement of 400,000-450,000 tonnes, while domestic production is estimated at only 40,000-50,000 tonnes, the report said. GTRI said higher duties could protect one domestic producer while raising costs across the power sector without materially reducing import dependence.

The think tank said CRGO imports already comply with mandatory Bureau of Indian Standards certification, making the investigation a pricing issue rather than a quality issue. The product had also been excluded from safeguard duties because of India’s continued reliance on imports.

GTRI also raised concerns over the methodology used in the investigation. It said DGTR had largely relied on the Indian producer’s own costs to assess normal value instead of actual domestic prices in exporting countries. China was treated as a non-market economy, while for Japan, South Korea and Russia, domestic price data were deemed unavailable, leading to the use of the applicant’s costs as the benchmark.

As a result, exporters from four different economies are effectively being measured against the same Indian cost benchmark, raising questions over whether the probe reflects market conditions in each country, GTRI said.

India’s imports of the products under investigation rose 15.5% to $821.5 million in 2025-26 from $711.1 million a year earlier, according to data cited in the report. Imports of grain-oriented silicon electrical steel of width above 600 mm rose 20.1% to $676.3 million.

China was the largest supplier of the wider CRGO steel category in 2025-26, with a 33.6% share of India’s imports, followed by Japan at 31.4%, Russia at 20.6% and South Korea at 6.5%, the report said.

GTRI said the outcome of the investigation could have implications beyond the steel industry, given India’s planned grid expansion and the need for reliable and competitively priced supplies of transformer-grade steel.