NEW DELHI: Stainless steel importers have opposed the Commerce Ministry's move to initiate probe into alleged dumping of the alloy from foreign countries, saying the facts furnished by a leading domestic manufacturer for investigations are "misleading".

"Commerce Ministry officials believed the data were compiled by a novice organisation without asking the Joint Plant Committee, an outfit of Steel Ministry, to verify the same," Secretary of Process Plant Machinery Association of India V P Ramchandran said in a statement.

The total imports of cold-rolled sheets and coils to India are less than 45,000 tonne per annum and mostly in sizes, which the domestic industry is unable to offer, he added.

The high-grade imported stainless steel are critical for infrastructure sectors like railways, automotives, oil and gas, Ramchandran said.

Doubting the intentions of the domestic producer on whose behest the anti-dumping investigations have been launched, a leading exporter of stainless utensils P S Sarna said: "It is ironical that the company is opening its service centres and business operations abroad, but wants Indian stainless market to be protected for it alone."

If imports are restricted by way of anti-dumping duty, exports of over a million tonne of value-added carbon steel to Europe would be affected, he said.

The Mumbai-based utensil and kitchenware industry that exports over a 1,00,000 tonne of products, against which it needs to import cold-rolled coils and sheets of superior quality, would also be hit, Sarna said.

Seeking cancellation of the probe, S Ramann of Sulzor India said the end users would approach the Prime Minister if their demand is not met with.