Indian Steel Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that India will soon restore its status as a net exporter of steel. It is expected that by the end of this fiscal year (April 2023-March 2024), Indian steel The trade deficit will be repaired. Scindia said that India’s situation as a net importer of steel from April 2023 to January 2024 is “temporary” and is caused by factors such as global oversupply, improvement in the domestic market and slowdown in exports.
From April 2023 to January 2024, India’s finished steel exports were 5.52 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 3%, while imports were 6.8 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 37%. Accordingly, imports exceeded exports by 1.28 million tons during the period in question. During this period, the steel trade deficit widened to 115.64 billion rupees, with imports of 564.61 billion rupees and exports of 449.89 billion rupees.
Scindia said oversupply has occurred across the world, leading to severe oversupply. This, in turn, has led to lower steel prices.
On the other hand, there has been a significant increase in domestic demand and consumption, which has made steel mills focus more on the domestic market rather than targeting exports.
Preliminary data for the first 10 months released by the Indian Steel Ministry showed that finished steel production was 114 million tons, an increase of 13%, while domestic consumption was 113 million tons, an increase of 15%.
“But now, international demand is improving. So, our exports are also growing.” India Business Online quoted Scindia as saying. In January 2024, India’s steel exports increased by more than 30% month-on-month and 43% year-on-year, reaching 900,000 tons. Data from the Indian Steel Ministry shows that in that month, India became a net exporter of steel with a slight advantage of importing more than 100,000 tons.
Collecting Materials:
According to Scindia, India is still discussing expanding its sources of coking coal purchases. Mongolia is one of the countries that India has been actively engaging with to secure supplies of coking coal.
As we all know, India is the second largest producer of crude steel and one of the largest importers of coking coal.
While Australia remains its most important supplier, its share has declined significantly and Indian steel mills are increasing purchases of coking coal from the United States and Russia.
“We are looking at diversifying our sources,” he said.
Scindia also revealed that the Indian Steel Ministry is working hard to avoid domestic shortages of low-grade iron ore. “This issue has been brought to the fore.”
Source: Sxcoal
