India to become world's second largest steel maker soon: Tomar

Exuding hope India will become the world's second largest steel making nation soon, Steel Minister Narendra Singh Tomar today said below-potential consumption of the alloy in rural areas holds promise for the sector's future growth.
"India is the fourth largest producer of crude steel in the world now and is expected to become the second largest producer of crude steel very soon," he said, inaugurating the steel pavilion at India International Trade Fair (IITF) here.
For four years in a row, India has been world's fourth largest steel maker. The top 3 are China, Japan and the US.
With 62.41 million tonnes output, the country remained the world's fourth largest steel producer in the first nine months of the current year as well. India had produced 81.29 MT steel in 2013.

India's crude steel capacity stood at 101 MT in 2013-14. Work on enhancing capacity by steel majors such as SAIL, Tata Steel and RINL among others are going to come on stream in a year and a half from now. The government has set a target of trebling capacity to 300 MT by 2025-26.
Even as India has set the target for capacity addition, per capita consumption in the country remains abysmally low at 60 kg compared to the world average of over 200 kg.

The Minister said since rural per capita consumption of steel in the country stands at around 10 kg, consumption has huge potential to grow both in rural and urban areas.

"Rural per capita consumption of around 10 kg is an indicator of the potential for future growth of the industry," Tomar said.
During the April-October period of the current fiscal, India's steel consumption grew by just 0.5 per cent to 43.11 MT.
The steel sector contributes nearly two per cent of the country's GDP and employs over six lakh people. India was a net exporter of finished steel in 2013-14.