Certification of tinplate to hit Indian canmakers

The Canmaker: "Tinplate used by canmaking companies in India must from next week be certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards.

The so-called Steel and Steel products (Quality Control) Order by India's Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Distribution is due to come into force on February 12.

Under the directive, tinplate is one of the steel products that must conform to specified standards in order to be made, sold, stored or distributed in India, while non-certified tinplate will have to be scrapped.

The Metal Containers Manufacturers Association of India (MCMAI) opposes the regulation, since the annual marking and processing fee of imported tinplate would raise its overall cost by two percent, while the scrapping of non-certified tinplate would result in estimated losses of more than US$40m.

Vice president of the MCMAI Sanjay Bhatia, who is also managing director of canmaker Hindustan Tin Works, told The Economic Times: 'Since canmakers have long-term contracts with end users, it's difficult to pass on the increased cost burden to them. Also, the users have option to import empty tin cans from abroad."