Higher Demand Steers Steel Sector's Revival

After almost a decade of indifferent growth, the recovery of the global economy and that of the steel industry in 2017 points to a positive outlook for India’s steel sector.

- Tushar K. Mahanti

Economic growth is contingent upon the growth of the steel industry as it is used in most of the economic activities; in cars and construction products, refrigerators and washing machines, cargo ships and surgical scalpels. India has seen its steel industry growing at tandem with its economic growth – from just one million tonne (mt) in 1947, the production capacity grew to 130 mt in 2017-18.

India becomes the second largest steel maker in the world

Surpassing Japan, India has now become the second largest steel maker in the world. With China on top, India had been holding the number three slot for the third year in a row till 2017. A steady rise in production to 96.92 mt during January- November 2018 compared with Japan’s 95.86 mt made India’s production the second highest globally. While China is miles ahead of others in terms of production – 831.70 mt in 2017 – the gap between Japan and India was narrowing down in the past few years. Japan produced 104.7 mt steel in 2017 compared with India’s 101.4 mt.