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Once, it used to be a major supplier of steel for most of India’s domestic consumers.
But with COVID-19 and its subsequent lockdowns and the almost overnight disappearance of the steel market, the public company Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) finds itself painted into a corner.
The rising exports of iron ore, especially pellets, from India has put steel manufacturers and exporters at loggerheads.
According to official figures, India’s ore exports between January and March 2020 were 8.9 million tons against 2.0 million tons during the same period last year. In fiscal year 2020, exports were at 25.14 million tons, up from 16.2 million tons the previous year.
The COVID-19 pandemic — and even conditions prior to that — has turned India into a net importer of copper, with at 132,445 tons imported between April 2019 and January 2020.
Provisional data for fiscal year 2020 from the Government of India show India became a net exporter of steel with an increase of 31.4% in March 2020.
A CNBC report claimed India’s steel consumption had touched the psychological barrier of 100 million tons (MT) this fiscal year.
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India’s stainless steel production has registered a slowdown in growth in 2019, but worse is going to come.
A report by the International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF), the Brussels-based body of the World Steel Association, has forecast production will drop drastically in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a statement by the Indian Stainless Steel Development Association (ISSDA).
Like its metals markets, India’s mining sector is in a state of turmoil because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
A new report by data analytics company GlobalData has forecast India’s iron ore exports will decline by around 25% to 23.3 million metric tons in 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak, the closure of ports, shortage of workers and transport restrictions.
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Like their international counterparts, Indian steel companies are under immense stress because of production and demand disruption in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Press Trust of India reported Tata Steel and Indian public sector Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) have cut their output by about 50%.
Quoting unnamed sources, moneycontrol.com reported the two companies had been forced into the output reduction because of reduced market demand.
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When traditional power generation companies start talking retail solar power, it’s time to sit up and take note.
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Like in other countries, the outbreak of COVID- 19 and the subsequent lockdown threatens to disrupt India’s steel production.
What’s more, there are reports coming in now that Indian steel companies will face even more competition from rivals in China in this state of crisis, adding to the woes of the former.
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Aluminum is suddenly the new buzzword in India.
In the last 2-3 months, there has been a lot of activity in the Indian aluminum sector, much of it propelled by India’s ongoing quest for clean and green tech.
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For starters, news has just broken that the Indian Railways, one of the world’s largest rail networks, is looking to manufacture India’s first aluminum body train coaches.
The Railway Board has approved the manufacturing of 500 aluminum body coaches in India.