According to the Crisil report, India imported 4.26 tonnes of finished steel between April and November 2023, and imports may touch this budget by 6 tonnes due to strong domestic demand. The report comes at a time when steel companies are expressing serious concern about the increase in imports.
Global steel demand, which the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has reduced, will increase by 1.6% in 2023 after a decline of 3.3% in 2022, a world analysis company. The growth rate is the fastest ever, with demand growth in India reaching 13%, Crisil said.
This fiscal, the steel sector in India is poised to clock its third consecutive year of double-digit growth at 11-13 percent after growing 11.4 percent and 13.4 percent in fiscal 2022 and 2023, respectively.
"Strong domestic demand, supported by government spending on infrastructure, building and construction segments, is expected to keep India's steel imports elevated around the 6 MT (million tonnes) mark this fiscal even as the global steel industry battles a slowdown," Crisil said.
Chinese mills have started pushing volumes into the global market at highly competitive prices. Between January and November this year, exports from China increased 35.6 percent to 82.7 MT - the highest since 2016.
