India has slapped anti-dumping duties on South Korean steel products for five years to better protect its homegrown industry, the country's trade promotion agency said Tuesday. 

"India has aggressively expanded its steel plants to meet growing local demand and increase exports. Steel imports from countries like South Korea, China and Japan have also jumped in recent years due to global oversupply," said a spokesman at the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency. 

"The Indian government began to take measures aimed at protecting local steel mills in 2015, including a hike in tariffs on imported steel products," he said.  
India's finance ministry already imposed $474-$594 per ton in anti-dumping duties on South Korean steel products for six months from Aug. 8 last year. On Monday, the ministry announced it will slap duties of $478-$561 a ton on Korean products for the next 4 1/2 years, a New Delhi-based Kotra official said in a report. 

An anti-dumping duty is a tariff a government imposes on importers who price their goods below fair market value.  

Kotra expected India's latest action will weigh on the bottom line of Korean steelmakers for the time being as the emerging country is determined to bolster its own steel industry. 

Indian steelmakers contribute 2 percent of the country's gross domestic product and hire some 2 million workers. India ranks third in terms of steel output after China and the United States, according to India's Ministry of Steel. 

As of September 2016, South Korean steelmakers accounted for 24 percent of India's imported steel market, according to IHS Global Trade Atlas.