Can Indigenous Steel players meet surplus demand in this ever changing market dynamics?

With successive growth opportunities; from Steel Giants T. V. Narendran’s TATA, Sajjan Jindal’s JSW Steel, Naveen Jindal’s JSPL to other important service providers like SKM Steels for TATA , Abhay Ispat for JSW and Sanjiv Mehta of Shah Brothers Ispat Pvt.Ltd, India’s Steel sector is on an ever expanding track.

From world’s fastest growing economy to largest prospective urban agglomeration— India is expected to overtake United Kingdom as the world’s 5^th largest economy. Additionally, latest official data showed that India’s export basket has managed to pull down the trade deficit, where the nation’s most valuable exported items were processed petroleum oils, diamonds, rice, automated parts, accessories, etc. Can this balance of trade be maintained in the coming years and what does this proceeding mean for the future?

With countries looking to bolster their respective economies, the recent premise at the world stage has been to protect the local industries— to facilitate revenue and employment growth. In a bid to make India a global manufacturing hub, the government’s pragmatic economic policy led to the introduction of “Make in India” scheme.

One sector which has been benefitted the most in this backdrop is “steel”. From major industries such as real estate sector, ship building to small ones such as packaging, steel is a major component in everything— owing to its high tensile strength and low cost. There is steel in our cutlery, in our buildings, our watches, our vehicles and even in some of our electronics. Without steel, most of the modern technology wouldn’t exist in the form that it does.

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In recent years, India’s crude steel production and distribution has expanded rapidly and is currently growing at over 7%. According to World Steel Association, India registered a growth of around a whopping 3.5 % in crude steel production at over 9.24 million tonnes, in the month of November, 2020. On the other hand, it produced about 8.93 MT crude steel during the same month in 2019. Keeping up with the speed at which crude steel is being produced, the industry is expanding its capacity, making it the third largest consumer of finished steel globally behind China and the US. That said, it’s not an easy job to produce and distribute quality steel as it requires a lot of precision, craftsmanship and a great vision. Thankfully, there are some incredible companies invested in supplying best quality steel in India.

Led by some great visionaries, the steel sector in India is thankfully in good hands. Let’s take a look at some of these pioneering establishments:

1. 1. Mahindra Inter Trade: From being the largest importing and processing of electrical steel, to one stop provider of steel solutions for the Home Appliances, Bharat Doshi’s Mahindra Inter Trade is an epitome of innovation and sustainable practices in the steel processing space of India.
   2. Shah Brothers Ispat Pvt. Ltd: With a strong legacy of quality and quantity, this Mumbai-  based steel company has been one of the largest distributors of boiler quality plates in India. As the CEO of the company, Sanjiv Mehta, who is also the Vice President of Steel Users Federation Of India (SUFI) has been helpful in creating new benchmarks by building relationships with domestic and international producers of steel. From high tensile plates to Alloy Steel plates and Stainless Steel Plates, Sanjiv Mehta’s Shah Brothers Ispat Pvt. Ltd has been exemplary in meeting the steel demands of the nation.
   3. FACOR Steel: A 1956 establishment, FACOR Steel is now a manufacturer of special    steels- Carbon, Alloy. With an emphasis on developed countries, FACOR Steel is also  catering to critical requirements of Automobile, Railways, etc.

VISA Steel, Mukand, Uttam Galva, the list is endless, as the Indian steel manufacturers are widely spread across the nation, mostly situated close to coastal zones or near the resource plants. With major infrastructure such as railways, bridges dependent on steel industry, the demand for a developing nation such as India will always be on the higher side. That said, what matters is the quality production, distribution and if Indian steel companies both big and small can match the potential.