India turns net importer of finished steel from net exporter
India is likely to swing to becoming a net importer of finished steel in the financial year ending March 31, 2023, showed provisional data from the Joint Plant Committee, as per a report by S&P Global Commodity Insights.
It elaborated:
In the year ended March 31, 2022, India was a net exporter of finished steel, with outflows of 13.49 million mt versus imports of 4.67 million mt.
The country’s exports of finished steel over April 2022-February 2023 fell 52% on the year to 5.90 million mt while imports rose 29.5% to 5.59 million mt.
Exports of finished steel consistently posted year-on-year falls over April 2022-February 2023 while imports recorded annual gains from June 2022 to February 2023.
Flat steel made up the bulk of the imports at 5.19 million mt, or about 92.8%. Hot-rolled coil accounted for most of the flat steel imports with 1.42 million mt, up 84.2% year on year, followed by galvanized plain/corrugated sheet and coil at 0.822 million mt (up 23.2%) and cold-rolled coil/sheet at 0.346 million mt (up 10.4%).
HR coil/strip was the most imported steel product at 1.96 million mt, accounting for about 35% of finished steel imports.