Posted on 06 Apr 2018
India has overtaken Japan to become the second-largest producer of crude steel globally in February 2018. According to World Steel Association, India produced 8.4mn tonnes of crude steel in February 2018, up 3.4% yoy. This puts Indian crude steel production at 93.1mn tonnes for YTDFY18, up 4.4% yoy.
This growth in production was supported by (1) 7.6% yoy increase in domestic steel consumption to 81.9mn tonnes supported by infrastructure spending and (2) 34% yoy increase in steel exports to 8.9mn tonnes.
According to the World Steel Association, finished steel demand is expected to grow at 5.7% yoy in CY18E.
The BSE Metal Index closed down 2.75% in Wednesday’s trade in reaction to China’s retaliation to the extension of the US import tariffs. The biggest loser for the session was Jindal Steel and Power which fell 4.4%. The gainer from the metal index was Nalco, which rose by 2.9% on the back of strong alumina prices.
