India is soon to overtake Japan as the world’s second largest steelmaker, said R. R. Ganesh, director of sourcing at Jindal Stainless, during a presentation at the Bureau of International Recycling conference held from October 14 in New Delhi.
He supported this claim with news the melting capacity of Jindal’s Jaipur-based Odisha stainless steel plant would be increased to 3.2 million mt within the next five years, an increase of 2.2 million mt.
According to analyst Becky Hites of Steel-Insights LLC, capacity has bled into India from China. Aggressive government shutdowns of 120 million mt have seen closed furnaces migrate to India, she said. Scrap has developed into an export commodity in China following the shut downs, with almost 880,000 mt of steel scrap exported between January and August 2017, according to BIR figures.
Despite this growth, India was priced out of the scrap market for 2017, according to BIR ferrous division board member Tom Bird. Steel demand was sluggish, but overall results for the Indian sub-continent were improved by an expected 2 million mt total imported to Bangladesh.
Global demand for steel scrap is healthy, Bird also said, with upcoming price volatility expected to be lower than in previous months.
