New Delhi, June 25: The United States has slapped punitive duties up to 450 per cent on what it calls cheap steel imports from China, India, Italy, Korea and Taiwan.

The US International Trade Commission has slapped the additional tariffs on imports of corrosion-resistant steel, which it said was hurting its own steel industry.

The United States consumed $17.1 billion worth of corrosion-resistant steel last year, and a glut of cheap imports grabbed 21.1 per cent of that market share, according to the International Trade Commission.

American steel-makers as well as workers unions had complained that steel imports were hurting their industry.

"The domestic steel industry has suffered dramatically because of the increase in unfairly traded imports, but the decision is an encouraging step toward a level playing field," US Steel CEO Mario Longhi said.

Ironically, besides US Steel, ArcelorMittal, a group run by an Indian steel magnate, had rooted for such a move.

The United States had earlier imposed tariffs of more than 500 per cent on cold-rolled steel from China and Japan, which the Chinese had described as "unfair".

India, on the other hand, had extended safeguard duties of 20 per cent on a range of steel products for another two years to protect domestic steel-makers from cheap imports from China, Japan and Korea, besides imposing minimum import prices.

Minimum import prices imposed in February ranged from $600 for a tonne of coated flat steel to $550 a tonne for cold rolled steel and $425 a tonne for hot rolled steel.

Japan has teamed up with China in demanding that India and the US drop what it deems improper barriers to steel imports.

The Japanese trade ministrysays India's safeguards meet the World Trade Organisation's standards for implementation.

The European Union has also enacted anti-dumping measures to cope with the situation, levying tariffsof more than 200 per cent on Chinese steel imports in some cases.

Analysts say the "steel war" has been necessitated by a global over-supply of steel, mainly on account of China, which produces about half of the world's steel output at over 800 million tonnes. The capacity was built up by China since the 1980s.

However, as China's economy slows down, its demand for steel is shrinking, producing huge over-capacities, forcing its steel-makers to increase sales to the rest of the world.

The World Steel Association said China's demand for steel dropped 3.5 per cent in 2015, and will shrink by another 7 per cent over two years - 2016 and 2017 - taking Chinese steel demand to about 626 million tonnes.

In 2015, Chinese steel exports increased 25 per cent to 112 million tonnes.

However, Beijing has agreed in February to cut steel production by 150 million tonnes by 2020.