Indian steel mills reduced their finished steel exports by 50 percent to 570 thousand tons in February 2023 compared to February 2022. Compared to January 2023, the product export volume decreased by 1.1%.
The reason for the decrease in India's processed steel exports is the decrease in interest in buying hot-rolled products originating from India due to the availability of competitive steel from the UAE on the market. When there are cheaper products on the market, buyers try to negotiate for lower prices. However, Indian steel producers are not willing to reduce production costs. The export volume to the European Union, India's largest consumer of rolled products, continues to increase in February.
In the 11 months of the 2022/2023 fiscal year (April 2022 – February 2023), the volume of finished steel exports from India decreased by 52 percent compared to the same period of the 2021/2022 fiscal year to 5.904 million tons. This decrease is thought to be due to the introduction of export duty in May 2022.
As of February 2023, crude steel production in India decreased by 9% compared to the previous month and decreased to 9.89 million tons. In addition, steel production also decreased by 2.5% y-o-y.
Between April 2022 and February 2023, Indian steelmakers increased their unrefined steel production by 4% to 113.44 million tons compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year.
Finished steel production in India during this period increased by 6% y-o-y to 109.35 million tons, while steelmakers produced 9.87 million tons of finished steel in February.
In February 2023, the consumption of processed steel in India reached 10.09 million tons, a decrease of 5% compared to the previous month and an increase of 11% compared to the previous year. The indicator for the 11 months of the 2022/2023 financial year increased by 12% compared to the previous year and reached 107.19 million tons.
The country's steel sector was seriously affected by the 15% export tax imposed on processed steel products last May. However, its cancellation in November 2022 made it possible to increase the export volume next month.
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