The antidumping case on hot rolled products of Indian steel majors will come up for its annual review in 45 days.

The review would come after the WTO ruling against US import steel duties. However, despite the WTO ruling the steel industry was not very hopeful about the outcome of the review.

Industry sources said that the case would come up for review by December after a sample shipment was made.

But, the most important factor was the petitioners' feedback and given the US steel industry's current status, US producers were unlikely to give a green signal to Indian exports.

Sources pointed out that bilateral relations would play a pivotal role in the decision making process. "It would be more of a political decision" they said.

Exports peaked during April 1999-March 2000, when, value of exports touched Rs 1,069 crore (Rs 10.69 billion), where primary steel alone contributed around Rs 1,021 crore (Rs 10.21 billion), which attracted the antidumping duty.

The antidumping duty was imposed on Steel Authority of India Ltd, Tata Steel, Essar Steel, Jindals and Ispat Industries making HR products unremunerative in the US market.

R C Nandrajog, vice president (finance) Tata Steel said that artificial barriers can be useful for a limited period only.

"Any persistent and long periods of imposition of duties makes the domestic industry inefficient.Therefore, any progressive government should use these measures very selectively and for short periods only, to provide the domestic industry enough time to become competitive" he said.

However, the industry appeared to have factored in the US impact and found alternative markets in Asian countries especially China which has been lapping up steel.

S K Gupta, executive vice chairman Jindal Vijaynagar Steel pointed out that exports to China had a freight advantage and realisations were also good at $360 for HR coils.

The Indian steel industry was unperturbed by the impact of the WTO ruling against Section 201, which could increase competition for existing Indian exports.

India, which was exempted from Section 201, being a developing nation, was exporting galvanised steel, pipes and stainless steel to the US.

Raman Madhok, deputy managing director Jindal Iron and Steel Co said that even if the Bush government decided to lift safeguard duty it would not have an adverse impact on Indian steel exports Freight was moving up and the exporting countries would export to countries closer to their home market.

However, Vinod Garg, director (marketing) Ispat Industries said that if a new market opened then realisations in a new market would always be good.

Jindal Stainless sources also said that they would consider exporting to the US market more actively in the near future for high value added products.