Indian steel exports may decline by 30%

Indian steel exports may decline by 30%

The Indian Steel Alliance (ISA) states that the suspension of Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB) scheme in March may cause a 30% drop in exports of India's leading five steel companies. These five steel companies are Steel Authority of India (SAIL), Tata Iron & Steel, Jindal, Ispat Industries and Essar Steel. These five steel companies, which are members of ISA, account for almost 80% of the total 36 million tons of domestic steel production. In the past two years, steel exports increased around 30%. Exports reached 2.68 million tons during 2002-03 with an increase of 52.5% and it rose by 9.2% to 2.96 million tons in 2003-04. In the first two months of current financial year, exports amounted to 0.3 million tons by indicating a significant decline. The exports are expected to be recorded as 2.06 million tons this year, down by around 30% over last year's figure of 2.96 million tons. ISA said that the export bookings during April-May 2004 period were lower than the bookings during January-March 2004 period. The suspension of DEPB scheme is expected to be felt more and more in the coming months as exports of galvanized products, cold rolled products and hot rolled products are likely to go down significantly.