India to turn world's third largest steel producer this year

Going by the production of steel in the country so far this year, India is on its way to becoming the third largest steel producer in the world. With an output of 55 million tonne (mt) last year, the country was ranked fifth in the world after China (501 mt), Japan (119 mt), United States (91 mt) and Russia (69 mt). Germany, Ukraine and Brazil followed India at the sixth, seventh and eighth positions, respectively.

India, which had earlier set itself the target of becoming the world's third largest steel producer by 2013, is also aiming to produce 124 mt of steel by 2011-12. Speaking to FE, Joint Plant Committee (JPC) executive secretary Goutam Kumar Basak said that going by the production figures for April-August 2009, which saw a production of 22.14 million tonne of steel (a jump of 6.6% over the corresponding figure for 2008), the country India is likely to emerge as the third largest producer of steel in the current year itself.

Basak, while attending an awareness programme on energy efficient technologies and pollution abatement measures for the secondary steel sector, said steel production in the country has always risen considerably in the second half of the year, as demand for steel picks up from around October. This, he said, was mainly because construction activity in the country picks up significantly after the monsoon. Basak also said that figures with JPC showed that the consumption of steel in Jharkhand so far this year had gone up by 8% compared with last year.

Talking about secondary steel units in Jharkhand, the JPC executive secretary said JPC was in the process of improving its data base for the state which, as per the current data available, had three pig iron units, 49 sponge iron units, three electric arc furnace (EAF) units, 28 induction furnace units and 31 re-rolling mills. Industry sources, however, pointed to a significantly higher number of secondary steel units in the state, saying the steel city of Jamshedpur alone accounted for three pig iron units, 20 sponge iron units, 32 induction furnace units and eight re-rolling mills.

Deputy secretary (ministry of steel) MK Roy, while talking to FE, said the ministry is actively engaged in spreading awareness among secondary steel producers about JPC services in the field of data collection and NISST, which spreads awareness about energy conservation, pollution control, development of human resources and ways of bringing about a qualitative improvement in steel output. Asked if the dumping of steel by China is a threat, Roy said there is no dumping taking place, only India is importing certain automotive grade steel, which is not produced in the country.