Indian Tinplate Maker Warn on Low Grade Tinplate in Food Packaging
Indian Tinplate Manufacturers Association Chairman Mr RN Murthy wrote in Business Line that rampant use of cheaper non prime tinplate continues to be a dampener in India, posing threat to the health and safety of Indian population at large and it is time for India to recognise the threat and take actions to ban usage of non prime tinplate, like other developed economies. He wrote “Despite having adequate capacity to manufacture tinplate to meet domestic demand, India imports 35-40% of its requirement of tinplate, much of it of low quality. Nearly 70% of tinplate used in India is for packing foods and 80% of imports by India are non-prime and low quality. In fact, nearly 25% of the non-prime low-grade tinplate produced globally is dumped into India every year, causing severe health and safety hazards to a large population. When used for packaging food, higher grades of tinplate are recommended by regulators, including the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, as low-quality tinplate may contaminate food.”
He wrote “The government of India had sought to prevent the use of non-prime tinplate in food cans through the Steel and Steel Product Quality Control Order dated July 17, 2020. The implementation has, however, been deferred twice.”
He added “While tinplate demand in India was around 0.6 million tonne in FY 2020-21, domestic installed capacity is at 0.73 million tonne, which is enough and more for domestic demand. The virtual free access to Indian tinplate market for cheap imports has led to Indian tinplate mills running at 70% capacity. In the last three years it has also led to closure of close to 0.15 million tonne of indigenous capacity.”
He also highlighted “An anti-dumping investigation, carried out by Director General Trade Remedies in 2020, found that imports were being dumped into India at unfair prices causing injury to the domestic tin-mills and had since proposed anti-dumping duty ranging between USD 222-334 per tonne on tinplate imports from countries such as the US, EU, Korean Republic and Japan, except Nippon steel. The anti-dumping duty recommendation has not been implemented.”
India’s tin can making industry association Metal Container Manufacturers Association has urged the government to drop the steel and steel products quality control order for now, issued by the Ministry of Steel to impose mandatory BIS certification. The government had issued the order on July 17, 2020, pushing units for BIS certification for the major input material required such as tinplate, tin-free steel, and had also imposed restrictions on various steel products like easy-open ends, peel off ends etc. MCMA said “Considering Covid-19 situation with restriction on movements in and out of the country including International travel, MCMA recommends to defer this notification till March 2022. It is virtually impossible to force the international suppliers for BIS certifications as the procedure of BIS registration is highly cumbersome.”
Source - Strategic Research Institute