In February, the Press Information Bureau announced that according to World Steel Association data, India had become the second largest steel producer of crude steel after China in 2018 and 2019, replacing Japan. The United States was in the fourth place in both years, followed by South Korea in 2018 and Russia in 2019.
Data from the association showed that China also led the world in exports of steel products in 2018, followed by Japan, Russia, South Korea and Germany. These five countries accounted for 42.3 per cent of all exports in the world and India has some way to go before it can gain a place in this league.
According to a report by the India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) in December 2019, India’s crude steel production capacity rose from 80.36 million tonnes in 2010-11 to 137.97 million tonnes in 2018-19. In 2019, blast and blast oxygen furnaces accounted for 47 per cent of the steel produced in the country, followed by induction furnaces (27 per cent) and electric arc furnaces (26 per cent).
The IBEF report also said that finished steel production more than doubled from 60.62 million tonnes in 2009-10 to 131.57 million tonnes in 2018-19, while consumption of finished steel products rose from 59.34 million tonnes in 2009-10 to 97.54 million tonnes in 2018-19, a growth of nearly 65 per cent.
Statistics from the World Steel Association showed that India’s exports had been erratic in the past decade. They rose from 8.94 million tonnes in 2011 to 10.38 million tonnes in 2014 but fell to 7.56 million tonnes in 2015. The exports zoomed to 16.34 million tonnes in 2017 but declined to 11.10 million tonnes in 2018.
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