NEW DELHI: India’s steel imports dropped for a fourth straight month in February, provisional government data showed, as duties and a floor price on steel products helped reduce overseas purchases hurting the sector. The Indian government imposed a 20 per cent safeguard import duty for 200 days on some steel products in September 2015 and last month set a floor price on imports to deter countries such as China from undercutting local mills, the first such move in more than 15 years. India, the third-largest steel producer in the world, shipped in 912,000 tonnes of the alloy last month, 7.3 per cent lower than the corresponding month a year earlier, data from the Joint Plant Committee of the steel ministry showed. However, imports rose 20.5 per cent in the 11 months to February compared with the same period last year, the data showed.