Indian per capita consumption of steel has increased to 65 kg from 61 kg over the past two fiscal years, an official at India's Ministry of Steel said on Thursday, December 28, citing demand-consumption analysis carried out by the ministry.
Attributing the increase in per capita consumption to the government’s promotion of steel in "underground and over-ground construction and government investments in infrastructure projects", the ministry official said that this is a positive step towards the Indian government’s stated objective to increase domestic steel production to 150 million mt per year by 2020, up from the present level of 126 million mt per year. However, he acknowledged that Indian per capita steel consumption still has a long way to go to catch up with the level of 202.2 kg in developed economies.
But, with the government making use of domestic steel mandatory for all government-funded projects, per capita steel consumption is expected to see a sharp rise in the short term, the official added.
At present, domestic steel consumed by various government agencies and companies involved in implementing infrastructure projects accounts for 20 percent of total Indian steel consumption.