According to a World Steel Association (worldsteel) study, India is slated to advance in front of the US to become the second largest steel-consuming nation in the world in 2019 after China. For 2019, China is estimated at 843.3 million mt while India is estimated at 102.8 million mt, 1.4 million mt higher than the US. India is expected to surge to 110.2 million mt in 2020 with the US remaining relatively stable at 101.7 million mt. The worldsteel forecast for 2019 is slightly higher than the 100 million mt Indian Steel Association (ISA) forecast published by SteelOrbis on April 11, 2019.
Al Remeithi, chairman of worldseel, noted that the Indian economy is expected to achieve faster growth starting in H2 2019 after the election as the country had overcome well the Goods & Services Tax (GST) implementation, demonetization, and new banking policies initiated in 2018 and still reverberating in H1 2019. Remeithi added that uncertainty over the trade environment and volatility in the financial markets could pose downside risks to the forecasts.