The Indian Steel Sector: Development and Potential

The Indian steel industry has made a rapid progress on strong fundamentals over the recent few years. The industry is getting all essential ingredients required for dynamic growth. The government is backing the industry through favorable industrial reforms, while the private sector is supporting it with investments worth billions of dollars. Even in the tough times of economic slowdown, the industry succeeded to sustain its positive growth momentum on the strong fundamentals of domestic demand from construction, automobile and infrastructure sectors. With an impressive track record, the country has become a reputed name in the world steel industry. Global steel giants from all over the world have shown interest in the industry because of its phenomenal performance. For instance - the crude steel production in India registered a moderate year-on-year growth of 2.7% in 2009 and reached 56.6 Million Metric Tons. On the other side, some Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea saw significant decline in their production levels. This further signifies the resilience and strength of the Indian steel industry against external risk factors. This paper presents the global scenario of steel industry as well as Production, consumption and growth of steel industry in India. In the second part; the author has made an attempt to highlight the Trends in production of Crude Steel in private/public sector in India. In the final facet of this paper; the author concludes with the challenges and opportunities of Indian steel industry.