India’s steel use bucks global slump to rise 15% in first half

livemint.com:

NEW DELHI : Domestic steel consumption grew strongly in the first half of the financial year in a clear signal that Indian manufacturing continues on a robust growth path despite global headwinds. According to the latest steel ministry data, steel consumption in the April-September period of FY24 grew 15% to 64 million tonnes from the year-ago period.

In H1 of FY23 too, steel consumption was robust, growing 11.5% to 55 mt rising from 49.7 mt in H1 FY21 when the country was in the grip of second wave of the covid-19 pandemic. “Backed by government of India’s robust infrastructure programme, India’s estimated per capita steel consumption has jumped to 87 kg per capita in FY23 from 77 kg per capita in FY22," steel secretary Nagendra Nath Sinha told Mint earlier.

He said steel consumption also grew strongly by 13% YoY to 119.9m. The World Steel Association projected in April that Indian steel demand is expected to show a healthy growth of 7.3% in 2023 and 6.2% in 2024.

“We expect that in FY24, Indian steel consumption will grow to 130-132 mt. I am confident India will achieve the target of 158kg per capita steel consumption by 2030-31 as set out in the national steel policy." The consumption-led growth in the steel sector has been achieved with an equally good performance on production.

Provisional data from Joint Plant Committee of the steel ministry indicates that domestic finished steel production in the six-month period of current financial year stood at 66 mt, up by 13.6% from 59 mt in the same period of previous year. Last year, production growth was just 7.6%, but it has risen sharply in the current fiscal backed by demand from infrastructure sectors amid a pickup in activity after the government raised spending.