JSW Steel Weighs In On India's 2012 Demand for the Metal

Continued from Part One. 

JSW Steel, the flagship company of the JSW Group, is also among the biggest steel manufacturers in India. JSW Steel is the largest private-sector steel manufacturer in terms of installed capacity.

According to a statement issued by the company, JSW Steel Limited reported 26 percent growth in crude steel production in Q4 FY 2012 compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal year.

JSW’s crude steel production for the year 2011-12 was 7.4 million metric tons, showing 16 percent growth over previous year.

The company gave the guidance of 8.75 million tons of crude steel production in the beginning of FY 2011-12.

Steel production expectations by the largest Indian steel companies are in line with the World Steel Association’s (WSA) forecast.

WSA, whose members produce nearly 85 percent of global steel, said recently that India’s steel consumption in 2012 is projected to grow by 6.9 percent to 72.5 million tons.

WSA has further said that India’s steel growth would be faster in 2013 at 9.4 percent on increased infrastructure spending.

India plans to invest $1 trillion to spruce up its beleaguered infrastructure in the 12th Plan period (2012 -2017).

Global steel use, the industry body said, will increase by 3.6 percent to 1.4 billion tons in the current year, following growth of 5.6 percent last year. Demand may grow by 4.5 percent to around 1.49 billion tons in 2013, it added.

Although the global impact of the euro zone debt crisis has been limited so far, uncertainties continue to exist and this remains the key downside risk to our current outlook.

The available figures suggest that total steel production in India in fiscal 2011 has grown by 6.6 percent and steel consumption by 5.5 percent.

According to figures released to the lower house of the parliament (Lok Sabha) by the Indian steel minister, Beni Prasad Verma, India’s steel production during the first 10 months of the current fiscal stood at 63.9 million tons, an increase of 6.8 percent over the same period last year.

This compared closely with the production levels of 66 million tons registered in 2010-11, itself an 8.8 percent increase over the 60.6 million tons in 2009-10.