India may continue to be a net importer of steel in the current fiscal following the huge demand supply mismatch, Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said.
“Whereas the demand for steel continues to be at around 11.2 per cent, the production growth in the first half of the year has been only 5.2 per cent,” Paswan told reporters at the 22nd Steel Counsumer Council meeting here.
During the past six months, India’s steel imports have shot up by 50 per cent to about 3 million tons as compared to the corresponding period in the last fiscal.
In 2007-08, the country imported about 6 million tons of steel to meet the growing requirement of the alloy.
Paswan said the demand for steel in India is expected to reach 109 million tons by 2012-13 whereas Government has envisaged a total production of 124 million tons, excluding the proposed greenfield projects of Posco and ArcelorMittal.
“We should be able to achieve the production target. SAIL has placed work orders worth Rs 30,000 crore for its proposed augmentation of capacity to 26 million tons,” he said.
Not buying the idea that the global economic slowdown may affect steel consumption in the country, he said the demand is here to stay as India’s infrastructure sector is booming.
Globally, steel prices have softened by about USD 350 a tonne owing to the slump in demand from the consuming sectors as a result of the economic slowdown.
As the steel companies plan to expand their production capacities, Paswan said it is essential for them to secure raw material resources, including iron ore and coking coal.
He said the private and public sector steel firms have proposed forming a consortium along with Coal India to develop Jharia coal mines and seek its valuable coking coal reserves on a sharing basis.
