Rising risks on export front may dent fortunes of steel players

With domestic growth tepid, analysts sceptical about sustainability of price hikes

There have lately been talks of steel prices being hiked by Rs 1,000-2,000 a tonne, and these sound encouraging. On a positive note, steel manufacturers have also started reporting strong production numbers. Tata Steel’s provisional numbers, for instance, show saleable steel production is up 17 per cent to 11.34 million tonnes (MT) in FY17 and a 22 per cent growth to 3.11 MT in March 2017 quarter. JSW Steel, too, has reported an impressive trend with 15.8 per cent growth in production to 15.8 MT in FY17 and 28 per cent growth to 4.10 MT in March quarter. These have