Reacting to the situation, Essar Steel managing director Jatin Mehra said that the situation should not have a major effect on Indian companies in the immediate future as the US markets have lost most of its charm. Exporters are moving away from the US markets as prices are the same compared to prices in other markets in the world, and moreover the freight charges make it unattractive, he said.

He added that it will be difficult for the petitioners to establish the injury, as the American steel companies have been running at full blast, and all of them have been making profits. Thus even if a dumping case is established, the injury cannot be determined, Mr Mehra said.

According to Mr Mehra markets have begun to pick up in south-east Asia, and regarding Essar Steel, irrespective of the petition, the company has already started pulling out of the US markets. "It is no longer a preferred a destination for HR exporters," he said.

"The impact will not be much but it needs to be fought back," Mr Mehra emphasised. Jindal Vijayanagar Steel senior vice president (international marketing) SW Wagh was of the opinion that presently it would be risky to export to the US, as the US International Trade Commission (ITC) will make a preliminary injury determination by December-end.

He added that the government needs to work to get a quota for steel exports at an undertaking price. He said that if the ruling by the US ITC goes in favour of the petitioners it might impact the prices. "We might have to cut down production to maintain prices," Mr Wagh said, adding that the matter is more political than economical.

Ispat Industries vice president marketing Barin Das said that the government should frame export incentives in such a way that it does not attract anti-dumping duties.

On subsidy allegations Mr Das said, we will have to appoint lawyers to prove our point, government to government level communications can also make a lot of difference.

However American Institute for International Steel (the body of steel importers) chairman Horst Buelte has said: "Domestic steel industry claims that the current market conditions caused by imports are simply not true."He added that the current market conditions can be directly attributed to the multiple price increase that domestic steel producers implemented beginning late 1999, and continuing into early 2000. Adding that consumers, in an effort to beat the final price increase, had built up their inventories through aggressive buying of domestic and imported products, resulting in larger than needed inventories.

Meanwhile, US traders decried the filing of unfair trade cases by domestic mills against imports of hot rolled coils from eleven nations, noting that imports are already declining significantly. The other nations are Argentina, China, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Romania, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand and Ukraine.

The petitions alleged dumping margins for market economy defendants in the range of 15 per cent to 56 per cent. Non-market economy nations such as Romania, China, Kazakhastan and Ukraine were alleged to be dumping in excess of 50 per cent for each nation. There were also subsidy allegations ranging from 10 per cent to 35 per cent against Argentina, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Thailand. The US commerce department will decide by December 4, this year, as to whether allegations needed to be investigated. When initiated, the US International Trade Commission will make a preliminary injury determination by December 28. This could result in the retroactive imposition of dumping duties as early as the beginning of January 2001.

US mills said combined HR sheet imports from the cited nations were under 6 lakh short tonnes in 1997, rising on 3 million tonnes in 1999 and 3.6 million tonnes in the first nine months of the current calendar year.