Introduction
During a lengthy six-hour meeting with all public sector organisations under the ministry’s administrative control, including SAIL, NMDC, and RINL, shortly after taking office, newly appointed steel minister Jyotiraditya Scindia pledged greater autonomy and “no inference” from the ministry in their internal affairs.
Steel Industry Overview
As of October 2021, India was the second-largest crude steel producer in the world with an output of 9.8 MT. Through January of FY22, 98.39 MT and 92.82 MT of finished steel were produced, respectively. It is expected that India’s crude steel production will increase by 18% to 120 million tonnes in FY22 as a result of rising consumer demand. The primary forces behind the rise of the Indian steel industry have been the domestic availability of raw materials like iron ore and the low cost of labour. As a result, India’s manufacturing output has been greatly dependent on the steel industry.
Modern steel mills are present in the Indian steel sector. It has always worked to upgrade older plants to better energy efficiency levels and to continuously modernise them.
The steel industry in India is divided into three groups: primary producers, secondary producers, and large producers.
MARKET SIZE
Through January of FY22, 98.39 MT and 92.82 MT of finished steel were produced, respectively. According to CARE Ratings, crude steel production would increase by 8–9 percent YoY in FY22, reaching 11–14 MT (million tonnes). 86.3 MT of finished steel were consumed in FY22 (till January). For the time frame of April 2021 to January 2022, 86.3 MT of finished steel was used.
India used 9.65 MT of finished steel in January 2022.
In FY22, completed steel exports and imports were 12.2 MT and 4.3 MT, respectively (up through February 2022). In contrast to April 2020, India’s exports climbed by 121.6% YoY in April 2021. In FY21, India exported 9.49 MT of finished steel.
The CEOs of the firms were also given the minister’s mobile number, who also controls the ministries of steel and civil aviation, and were told to call him if necessary rather than going to the Udyog Bhavan, which houses the ministry of steel, according to sources at the conference.
In addition to overseeing the civil aviation industry, the minister also oversees the ministry of steel, according to sources at the meeting. He gave the CEOs of the companies his mobile number and told them to call him if necessary rather than going to the Udyog Bhavan, which houses the ministry of steel, to get in touch with him.
A source claims that Scindia, who holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford University, has identified the companies’ problem areas.
Additionally, he exhorted the PSUs to step up their efforts to boost production and transform the steel sector into a vibrant sector that is vital to the prosperity of the nation.
“The goal is to drive the sector to its greatest potential so that it becomes a strong engine of growth in the Aatmanirbhar Bharat vision,” Scindia said after taking office.
India produced 114 million tonne (mt) of finished steel in 2021–2022, an increase of 18% from the year before. Six significant corporations—JSW Steel, Tata Steel, SAIL, JSPL, AM/NS, and RINL—produced about 57 percent of this. The remainder was created by secondary sector players. In the previous fiscal year, 105 mt of finished steel was consumed.
India is the second-largest producer of crude steel in the world, behind China, with a capacity of over 150 million tonnes. The government plans to raise it to 300 mt by 2030–2031. In FY22, India produced 120 mt of crude steel.
In FY22, India increased its exports of steel by 25% to 13.5 mt while importing just about 4.6 mt. This resulted in India being a net exporter of steel.
