Steel consumption in India will grow more slowly

Steel demand in India is set to grow at the slowest pace in three years as the recession deepens in the bright spot of global industry. Moody's Investors Service 'Icra Ltd said that steel consumption in India is likely to increase by less than 6% this fiscal year, the slowest rate after rising 3.1% in the year ended March 2017.

Jayantha Roy, Senior Vice President of ICRA, said in an interview “Our previous view was that demand should grow by 6-7%. An increase of 7% will not correspond to the current situation, and even 6% in today's conditions will be optimistic. New capital spending by the government is critical to growing demand as private project spending is low and construction and infrastructure remain the most important drivers of steel consumption in India.

The industry is currently focusing on the second half of the fiscal year to see if major rail, pipeline, power transmission, urban infrastructure or road projects pick up steam. If they do, there may be some breathing room. If they don't, then the problems will be higher. "

According to media reports, data from the Combined Mill Plant showed that India's steel consumption in April-July was 33.706 million tonnes, up about 6.6% from the 31.607 million tonnes recorded a year ago, up 9.7%. higher than the 28.820 million tonnes seen in the corresponding months of 2017.