India’s Finished Steel Exports NoseDived 33% in May

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The official trade statistics released by the Joint Plant Committee (JPC) indicates marked decline in exports of finished steel from India. The exports totaled 0.43 million tonne (MT) during the month of May this year. This is significantly down by 33%, when matched with the previous year. The country had exported 0.642 MT of finished steel in May 2017. When compared with April 2018, the May ’18 exports were down by nearly 23%, official data said.

On the other hand, imports of finished steel reported strong jump by 11% from 0.558 MT in May 2017 to 0.620 MT in May this year. Meantime, the finished steel production climbed higher by 6.7% to touch 10.547 MT, as against 9.886 MT in the year-before period. Also, India’s consumption of total finished steel surged higher by 8.6% to total 8.330 MT in May this year. The consumption had totaled only 7.668 MT during the same month in 2017.

Commenting on the monthly data, Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh called upon the country to reduce its dependence on imports of special steel products through value addition and formation of joint ventures with global steel giants. Technologies must be developed to aid domestic production of electrical grade and auto grade steel. The value-added products deliver economic benefits too, he added.