India expects steel imports to soar by 43%

India stated that its domestic steel demand is strong while steel companies have insufficient capacity or import increases. China Steel Network believes that as India's expansion of iron ore imports and the reconstruction of Japan's post-earthquake development will lead to higher international iron ore prices, it is expected that iron ore will continue to rise after the shock in the future.

Due to the strong domestic steel demand and insufficient capacity of steel companies, India’s steel imports this fiscal year (from April 1 this year) are expected to reach 10 million tons, an increase of 43% year-on-year.

Mutu Raman, President of the Federation of Indian Industry and Deputy Chairman of Tata Steel, said that the demand for steel in India has been increasing, but factors such as difficulties in land acquisition and lack of infrastructure have affected the production capacity of steel companies. The steel import volume may reach this fiscal year. 10 million tons.

Mutu Raman said that in order to increase production capacity, India is planning to introduce new policies and measures to simplify procedures such as land acquisition and personnel resettlement, promote infrastructure in place, and accelerate the progress of major projects.

As the fifth largest steel producer in the world, India plans to achieve 120 million tons of steel production by 2012, but the current annual production is only 70 million tons. Due to the acceleration of infrastructure construction and the increase in demand for automobiles and other durable consumer goods, the domestic steel demand in India has increased by 8% to 10% year-on-year, faster than the growth rate of steel production capacity of 6% to 8%.

The World Steel Association recently released a report predicting that the growth in demand for steel in India will reach 13.3% in 2011, which is much higher than the global increase of 5.9%. In 2012, its steel demand growth will increase to 14.3%.