Small and medium-sized Indian stainless steel manufacturers are seeking to reintroduce mandatory QCO to verify imports from China

Indian small and medium-sized stainless steel manufacturers have called on the Indian government to re-introduce a mandatory quality control order (QCO), citing a surge in imports from China after the order was lifted earlier, an industry official said on Friday, June 26.

"The suspension of QCO has opened the door to a surge in low-cost imports from China, putting domestic micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) manufacturers under severe pressure and threatening thousands of jobs and significant investments made by Indian entrepreneurs," the Stainless Steel Induction Furnace Association said in a joint letter. and the Association of Stainless Steel Repeat Rollers in the Ministry of Steel of India.

By an order dated April 27, 2026, the Ministry of Steel suspended the Quality Control Order (QCO), which ordered the use of only Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certified products for various stainless steel products. This step was aimed at easing the compliance burden for local producers, especially micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

However, MSMEs in the stainless steel industry expressed concern about the sharp increase in imports of stainless products after the suspension of the OCC

According to the mandatory QCS, no product may be produced, stored, sold or marketed that does not comply with the relevant BIS standard. In case of import, the quality certification is issued to the importer after BIS completes the inspection.