Indian steel consumption recorded a growth of just one percent during August 2016 compared to the corresponding month of previous year, a report of Ministry of Steel released on Wednesday said.
According to the report, Indian consumption of finished steel during April-August 2016-17 recorded a growth of 1.3 percent rising to 33.74 million mt.
Finished steel consumption during August 2016 is estimated at 6.97 million mt, or growth of one percent compared to August 2015.
The Ministry of Steel report further said that imports of steel into the country during April-August 2016 fell to 3.01 million mt, down 34.5 percent over the corresponding period of the previous year.
At the same time, exports of finished steel producers from India showed a sharp rise to 2.3 million mt during April-August 2016, up 23 percent over the corresponding period of the previous year.
According to an official with EEPC India (formerly Engineering Export Promotion Council), the representative body of engineering industry and some of the largest consumer of steel products, the recent imposition of import protection measures like antidumping and minimum import price (MIP) is lowering steel consumption even as it is offering protection of margins and import competition to local steel mills.
The EEPC official said that artificial barriers to imports and resulting lack of price competitiveness among local steel producers are not in interest of industry at large, producers and consumers as evident by slowdown in consumption of steel products.