India may extend a 20 percent safeguard duty on steel imports up to 2018 as officials grapple with an onslaught of cheap supplies amid a global glut, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. The step may be limited to shipments that aren’t subject to minimum import prices, the people said, asking not to be identified as the deliberations aren’t public. India imposed the duty in September for six months and set floor prices for some products in February. A slowdown in China’s economy has exacerbated an oversupply of steel worldwide. Tata Steel Ltd., the metal-producing arm of India’s biggest conglomerate, has said it will consider selling its U.K. steel division in part because of weaker demand and prices. While the pace of inbound shipments to Asia’s No. 3 economy has slowed, the steel ministry is studying the feasibility of a bailout package to help indebted local producers. Steel imports fell 7.3 percent to 912,000 metric tons last month from a year earlier but were up 20.5 percent in the 11 months through February, provisional official data show. Rajinder Chaudhry, a spokesman in India’s commerce ministry, couldn’t be reached for comment. Safeguard duties are supposed to be temporary levies imposed to shield domestic industries from a damaging surge in imports.