MAKING IT STRONGER

While the steel industry is not at its best, there's hope

- MOLLY R

The scrapping of a recently imposed export duty on steel and allied raw materials by the government will pave the way not only for more overseas shipments of the alloy from India but also higher domestic prices, although the upside may be limited considering a weak global market. Just as suddenly as the government had levied an export duty of 15% on most key grades of steel and 45-50% on raw materials like iron ore and iron ore pellets in May this year, it scrapped those duties via a circular issued late last month.

The fall in steel demand is very steep globally and export opportunities are limited right now. In China, the fall in demand was 16 million tonnes (mt) in the first 10 months of the year. They imported less steel and exports were around the same level; production moderated a bit but it was not sufficient compared to the fall in demand. This is the story, almost across the world.