The DGTR has initiated an anti-dumping investigation into CRGO steel and Amorphous Metal imports from four countries following a complaint by India's sole domestic producer.
According to GTRI founder Ajay Srivastava, higher duties could increase transformer costs as India imports nearly 90% of its CRGO requirement despite ambitious plans to expand its electricity transmission network.
The analysis also raises concerns about the investigation's pricing methodology, arguing that exporters from different countries are being assessed against a common Indian cost benchmark.
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Why India's Anti-Dumping Move Could Make Power Projects More Expensive
India's anti-dumping investigation into transformer-grade electrical steel imports has sparked concerns that higher duties could raise transformer costs and impact the pace of the country's ambitious power grid expansion, even as domestic production remains far below demand
Summary
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India's decision to investigate alleged dumping of transformer-grade electrical steel from four countries has raised concerns over its potential impact on the country's ambitious power infrastructure plans, with experts warning that higher import duties could increase transformer costs without significantly reducing dependence on overseas supplies.
The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has initiated an anti-dumping investigation into imports of Cold Rolled Grain Oriented (CRGO) electrical steel and Amorphous Metal from China, Japan, South Korea and Russia following a complaint by JSW JFE Electrical Steel Nashik Pvt. Ltd., India's only domestic producer of CRGO steel.
However, according to an analysis by Ajay Srivastava, former Indian Trade Service officer and founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), the investigation comes at a time when India continues to rely heavily on imported CRGO steel to support its rapidly expanding electricity transmission network.
Critical Material for Power Infrastructure
CRGO steel is a specialised electrical steel used in the magnetic cores of power and distribution transformers, helping minimise energy losses during electricity transmission.
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As India expands its electricity network and integrates more renewable energy, demand for the material is expected to rise significantly.
The government plans to invest ₹9.15 lakh crore in expanding the national power grid by 2032, including the addition of nearly 191,000 circuit kilometres of transmission lines and more than doubling transformer capacity to 2,342 GVA.
Despite its strategic importance, India produces only 40,000-50,000 tonnes of CRGO steel annually against an estimated domestic demand of 400,000-450,000 tonnes.
As a result, nearly 90% of the country's requirement is imported, primarily from China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
According to Srivastava, imposing anti-dumping duties under these circumstances may increase input costs across the power sector while offering only limited protection to domestic manufacturing.
Pricing, Not Quality
The GTRI analysis notes that imported CRGO steel already complies with mandatory Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification requirements, making the current dispute one of pricing rather than product quality.
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The investigation follows a complaint by JSW JFE Electrical Steel Nashik Pvt. Ltd., which became India's only CRGO producer after acquiring Thyssenkrupp Electrical Steel India's Nashik facility in January 2025.
Questions Over Methodology
Srivastava also questioned the methodology adopted by the DGTR during the investigation.
Typically, anti-dumping investigations compare the domestic selling price of a product in the exporting country with its export price to determine whether dumping has occurred.
However, according to the analysis, the DGTR relied largely on the Indian producer's production costs to construct the benchmark after treating China as a non-market economy and citing a lack of domestic price data for Japan, South Korea and Russia.
As a result, exporters from four different economies are effectively being assessed against the same Indian cost benchmark, raising questions about whether the methodology adequately reflects market conditions in each country.
The investigation, which covers imports made between April 2025 and March 2026, could have implications beyond the steel industry. According to GTRI, policymakers will need to balance protecting India's only domestic CRGO producer with ensuring affordable supplies of a critical raw material needed for the country's power grid expansion and energy transition.
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