India’s finished steel consumption reached a 100mn mt milestone in the fiscal 2020 (April 2019-March 2020) as per Davis Index sources. Crude steel production declined by 1.5pc to 109mn mt from a year ago while finished steel production, including alloys like stainless and non-alloys marginally grew by 0.8pc to 102mn mt amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Most steelmakers in India have scaled-down production to adjust with weak downstream consumer demand.
Domestic steel requirements were mostly achieved from in house production and share of imports was at 6.8pc during the fiscal year.
| India’s steel production in March | |||
Production (mn mt) | 2019-20 | 2018-19 | Change (%) |
| Crude Steel | 109.2 | 110.9 | -1.5 |
| Hot Metal | 73 | 74.3 | -1.8 |
| Finished Steel | 102.1 | 101.3 | 0.8 |
| Pig Iron | 5.5 | 6.4 | -14.1 |
| Sponge Iron | 37.1 | 34.7 | 7 |
Exports of steel exceeded imports during in 2019-20 and India became a net exporter in the year. Imports were hit by the pandemic and fell by 18.5pc to 7.16mn mt, while exports rose by 30.9pc to 11.2mn mt .
India exported 2.8mn mt of semi-finished steel, a rise of 29.5pc. Finished steel exports were 8.35mn, up by 31.4pc from the prior year. India’s imports of steel from China declined by 22pc on the back of COVID-19. China had increased export tax rebates in Q4 of fiscal 2020 to boost exports.