NEW DELHI: India imported 40% more finished steel products in March 2009 than the previous month indicating that the booster measures announced
by the government to kickstart the economy have started rejuvenating the infrastructure and construction sectors.
Against 3.4 lakh tonnes in February, the country imported 4.8 lakh tonnes of finished steel goods in March 2009, according to the latest data released by the steel ministry. On a broader level, the data showed that steel imports slipped 18% to 5.77 lakh tonnes in FY09 against 6.83 lakh tonnes in the previous fiscal. The figures are part of the provisional data collected by the ministry of steel before the release of final figures later this month.
“The higher demand resulted in inflows of steel products from countries such as Japan, China, South Korea, Russia and Kazakhstan, Italy and Ukraine. The trend (increase in imports) has been witnessed mainly during the last quarter of 2008-09,” said a steel ministry official who didn’t want to be named.
The rise in imports is despite imposition of 5% additional duty on certain steel products in November last year. Initially, after the imposition of the levy, imports fell sharply to 3.2 lakh tonnes in December from a level of over 8 lakh tonnes in November. Imports, however, started picking up in January registering a 60% growth over December 2008 to 5.1 lakh tonnes due to the high demand from auto and construction sectors. It fell again to 3.4 lakh tonnes in February and revived in March reaching 4.8 lakh tonnes.
“There was never a demand crisis as India is insulated to some extent from the global meltdown. However, we can see revival in demand of steel from sectors such as construction, infrastructure and auto which has pushed imports in the last few months,” said a Delhi-based analyst who did not wish to be named.
As per the provisional data, exports too took a beating and fell 26.l% to 3.7 million tonnes in 2008-09 from 5 million tonnes in the previous fiscal as global demand slumped. However, some of the country’s largest steel makers have started operating at full capacity on the back of marginal recovery in supply orders from construction and infrastructure sector such as oil & gas, power, road and railways, aviation, urban housing and telecom.
Domestic steel firms produced 4.7 million tonnes of steel in February 2009, which was 2.6% more than what they did
in February 2008. The production growth is expected to be maintained even in April as the country’s largest steel maker SAIL is expecting higher sales trend of March to roll into April.
The country’s largest private sector steel producer JSW Steel has also achieved highest production during the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2009, showing growth of 11% over the corresponding quarter of last year. The crude steel production of the company stood at 4.56 lakh tonnes in March 2009, which was 28% higher over the corresponding month of last year and 39% sequentially over February 2009.
Source : The Economic Times