Imports account for 14% of steel consumption last fiscal

Steel imports accounted for 14 per cent of the country's total consumption, which rose by 4.3 per cent in the last fiscal, a development that does not bode well for the domestic producers of the metal.
Moreover, after registering four consecutive months of decline, steel imports rose by over 18 per cent in March as against last year, latest data by Steel Ministry's Joint Plant Committee (JPC) showed.
India's consumption of total finished steel saw a growth of 4.3 per cent in 2015-16 to 80.273 million tonnes (MT) as against 77 MT in the previous fiscal, it added.
"Such growth was mostly led by imports, which accounted for 14 per cent in total steel consumed by the country during the year, given that production for sale was down by 1.1 per cent during this period," JPC said.

India remained a net importer of steel in 2015-16 fiscal with inbound shipments growing by 20.2 per cent to 11.21 MT against 9.32 MT in 2014-15.
Domestic steel consumption in March stood at 7.31 MT, a growth of 3.7 per cent compared with February and 1.4 per cent compared to March last year.

Exports were also a sad story with the outbound shipments declining by 32 per cent in 2015-16 to 3.81 MT compared to 5.59 MT in 2014-15.
Exports in March increased by 17.1 per cent to 0.35 MT compared with February but decreased by 32.4 per cent compared to March last year.

During 2015-16, India's crude steel production rose by 0.4 per cent to 89.32 MT compared with 88.98 MT in 2014-15.
Against monthly steel production rose 1.9 per cent in March to 7.60 MT but when compared with last year, the output fell by 2.5 per cent last month.