How India's Steel sector find's itself on the brink of a major boom

India currently finds itself in the midst of a massive infrastructure boom, the result of which is that the demand and production capacity of steel in this country is set to double over the course of the next decade, according to the government. Current production capacity currently stands at 126 million metric tonnes, with forecasts indicating a rise to an annual capacity of 150 million metric tonnes, before finally settling at 300 million metric tonnes by 2030.

The government’s mandate of renewing infrastructure in Indian cities is considered the driving force behind this rise, but India’s steel ministry is also actively looking for ways to increase the use of steel in structures, including using steel piping to transport drinking water.

India’s finished steel consumption rose by 4.3% to 43 million tonnes in the six months leading up to September 2017, while the production output increased by 5% to 52 million tonnes according to the steel ministry.

The steel sector in India has been on the fortunate end of a stream of good tidings, including a price recovery, record volumes and steadily rising demand. All of this has sparked a resurgence in the fortunes of India’s steel mills who endured a tough 2016 amid mounting competition from the Chinese Steel Sector. The Indian Government has put in place a number of protectionist measures to safeguard Indian steel mills from foreign imports, most prominent among these is the levy of anti-dumping duties on steel imports from markets including China, The E.U. and the U.S.A.

India is on pace to overtake Japan as the second highest steel producer in the world with an output of 146 million tonnes compared to Japan’s 118 million tonnes.