Soaring sales cheer steel makers

Apart from capacity addition and subdued sales, a major reason for rising inventories for domestic steel manufacturers was growing imports.

"Imports have risen by 33.7 per cent in the first six months of 2012-13 against the same period last year. Countries like Japan, Korea and China which are major suppliers of steel to India have increased their sales even above the average of 33.7 per cent of total imports," the report said.

India had signed FTA with Korea in January 2010 and with Japan in August last year. Under FTA, duties on most of the products, traded between the countries, are either eliminated or reduced sharply.

India's steel import stood at 6.83 million tonnes in 2011-12.

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