India Steel Market Watch
October 29: The sluggish growth in steel demand witnessed over the past few years and, even worse, present demand levels might derail India’s ambitious plan to increase its steel production capacity to 300 million tons per annum (mtpa) by 2024-25, feels B M Beriwala, Chairman, Steel Re-rolling Mills’ Association of India (SRMAI).
“Currently, steel producers are struggling to sell even 110 mtpa of steel, which is India’s installed production capacity, and if the demand and consumption of steel do not increase, achieving 300 mtpa capacity looks difficult,” Beriwala told ISMW.
Adding to the woes of the domestic steel-makers is the recent spike in the import of steel at much lower prices, he said.
“We had expectations from the new government that it would start new infrastructure projects that would increase steel consumption and, in turn, raise demand. But right now, there is no impact of the government’s announcement at the ground level as the announced infrastructure projects are yet to take off,” Beriwala said.
He pointed out that the government’s initiative to impose safeguard duty on select grades of steel to give a boost to domestic steel makers failed to make any impact as the cheap imports are still continuing.
“Once the work on all the announced infrastructure projects start, then only would steel demand rise and the industry attain sustainability. It is important that the government takes initiative to boost steel demand,” Beriwala said.
Dwelling on the current steel demand scenario in the country, Beriwala said the sponge iron-makers and the overall steel market are suffering from lack of demand as consumption of finished products has gone down drastically.
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