India’s finished steel consumption grew to a whopping 133.596 MT during FY22 and is expected to reach 230 MT by 2030.
India’s crude steel and finished steel production increased to 133 MT and 120 MT in FY22, respectively.
In 2021-22, the country’s finished steel exports increased 26.2 per cent year-on-year to 111.42LMT, in comparison to the total imports of 39.7 LMT, making India the net exporter in 2022.
Steel industry and its associated mining and metallurgy sectors have seen a number of major investments and developments in the recent past.
According to the data released by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), the Indian metallurgical industries attracted Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) to the tune of US$ 16.0 billion in the period April 2000–June 2021.
Some of the major investments in the Indian steel industry are as follows:
-
Arcelor Mittal with the help of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal, is aiming to acquire Essar Steel which will help the group to start production of Automotive grade Flat Steel in India.
-
Vedanta Star Ltd has outbid other companies to acquire Electrosteel Steels for US$ 825.45 million.
-
Tata Steel won the bid to acquire Bhushan Steel by offering a consideration of US$ 5,461.60 million.
-
JSW Steel has planned a US$ 4.14 billion capital expenditure programme to increase its overall steel output capacity from 18 million tonnes to 23 million tonnes by 2020.
-
Tata Steel has decided to increase the capacity of its Kalinganagar integrated steel plant from 3 million tonnes to 8 million tonnes at an investment of US$ 3.64 billion.Some of the other recent government initiatives in this sector are as follows:
-
Government of India’s focus on infrastructure and restarting road projects is aiding the boost in demand for steel. Also, further likely acceleration in rural economy and infrastructure is expected to lead to growth in demand for steel.
-
The Union Cabinet, Government of India has approved the National Steel Policy (NSP) 2017, as it seeks to create a globally competitive steel industry in India. NSP 2017 targets 300 million tonnes (MT) steel-making capacity and 160 kgs per capita steel consumption by 2030.
-
The Ministry of Steel is facilitating setting up of an industry driven Steel Research and Technology Mission of India (SRTMI) in association with the public and private sector steel companies to spearhead research and development activities in the iron and steel industry at an initial corpus of Rs 200 crore (US$ 30 million).