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The Indian steel sector has enjoyed a multi-year demand surge which will continue in the current FY'24 but it is expected to moderate in the coming fiscal, global analytics company Crisil said. The sector has witnessed double digit demand growth rate of 11 to 13 per cent during three consecutive years and is likely to moderate to 3 to 5 per cent in FY'25, Miren Lodha, Director Research, Crisil Market Intelligence and Analytics said on Friday. "We are clearly in the midst of a demand supercycle," Lodha told PTI. The moderation is likely in the long steel segment in FY'25 ahead of the general election. The only other instance of such a demand surge in the last two decades was between 2006 to 2008, he said. Lodha said the infrastructure sector, a key driver of the steel demand, is expected to maintain its momentum fuelled by ongoing government projects. The infrastructure segment has been driving a lot of momentum in the steel demand and is expected to continue in the coming years.
Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) which plough back profits into the business tend to grow faster, compared with peers that don't. CRISIL's analysis of 3,000 rated MSMEs registered as proprietorships and partnership firms shows that 41 per cent had retained profits in 2014-15. The internal accruals allowed these units to manage a prudent mix of debt and equity to fund expansion/modernisation and meet increased working capital requirements. This enhanced their image with lenders, compared with peers which withdrew profits from the business, and allowed these units to raise 20 per cent higher borrowings.Better availability of capital, in turn, led to enhanced capacities and faster revenue growth. In fact, in the three years through fiscal 2015, revenue growth of the firms which had retained profits was double the rate logged by their peers. Operating profit margin (OPM) improved, too. In fiscal 2015, average OPM of the firms which retained profits was 52 per cent higher, compa