From dumping steel three-four years back, China now imports it: T ata Steel

NEW DELHI: Whil e the domestic consumption of steel in India has witnessed a drop due to COVID-19 pandemic, the domestic pla yers ar e using this opportunity to export steel to countries like China and others countri es tha t have a demand f or ste el, stated T V Narendran, CEO and mana ging dir ector of Tata Steel Limited.

Narendran r evealed, “Ov er the last three months, much of the steel exported out of India has gone to China. PostCOVID-19, Chi na's r ecovery ra te has been much sharper than we had anticipated.” Most Indian steel producers are making some decent money from these exports, he asser ted. T o day, China ac - counts for 60% of the global consumption an d pr oduction of steel. Meanwhile, the rest of Asia is another 20%.

He recalled that about three-four years back, China was dumping steel in India but today it is impor ting steel from India. At tha t time (when steel was being dumped int o India), man y quest ioned the competitiveness of the Indian steel industry. But this is not the case . “The steel industry was criticised for asking for suppor t when stee l was dumped in India. The steel industry at that point in time was asked to be competitive.”

Today, Tata Steel is among the top ten producers of steel in the world, and there are man y other I ndian players who ar e among the top 30 producers in the world.

Today, India is a 10 0-million-tonnes producer and consumer of ste el. “But consumption is going to d rop this year. Last ye ar i t was a bout 10 0 million tonnes. T his mak es us the second largest in the wo rld a fter China,” Narendran stated.

He a dded C hina’s consum ption is eight to nine t imes larger than India. “We h ave o vertaken J apan and the United Sta tes. B ut th e potential is huge,” he said. The government e stimates the steel consumption or production to go up to 300million tonnes in the next 10-15 years. “This is possible if the government spends on infrastr ucture that it plans to set up. This is mainly because infrastructure is very steel intensive,” he added.

I ndia, he said, is strategically positioned in the case of the steel industry . S ome countries h ave o nly demand f or steel, some ot hers ha ve pr oduction and some have the raw material (iron ore). It is to be noted that India is blessed with all three.