Demand and Production of Steel
The announcements in Budget for the Financial Year, 2021-22 viz. Capex allotment of Rs. 1,07,100 crore for Railways, 2.87 lakh crore outlay for Jal Jeevan Mission, Construction of roads under Bharatmala Pariyojana project, Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0, Scheme for Mega Textile Parks etc. will lead to increased demand for steel in the country. The Vision for Atmanirbhar Bharat and the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme will also help attract capital investments and thereby enhance demand and production of steel in the country. The Government has also approved inclusion of ‘Speciality Steel’ under the PLI Scheme.
The production and consumption of total finished steel (Non-alloy, alloy/stainless) in India during the period from April to June, 2020 had declined substantially as compared to the corresponding period last year. However, the production and consumption have shown sharp recovery subsequently and substantial increase in recent months. In December, 2020, production and consumption were 9.32 MT and 9.68 MT, showing growth of 1.08% and 11.91% on month-on-month basis respectively compared to the corresponding period last year. The details of month wise production and consumption during April, 2019-20 and 2020-21 are given below:-
| Month | Production (MT) | % Change (MoM basis) | Consumption (MT) | % Change (MoM basis) | ||
| 2019-20 | 2020-21* | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | |||
| April | 8.67 | 1.57 | – 81.89 | 7.33 | 1.09 | -85.13 |
| May | 9.04 | 5.52 | – 38.94 | 8.85 | 4.79 | -45.88 |
| June | 8.83 | 6.94 | -21.40 | 8.59 | 6.35 | -26.08 |
| July | 8.61 | 8.13 | -5.57 | 8.57 | 7.69 | -10.27 |
| August | 8.36 | 8.56 | 2.39 | 9.19 | 8.16 | -11.21 |
| September | 8.11 | 8.52 | 5.06 | 8.45 | 8.45 | 0 |
| October | 8.32 | 9.08 | 9.13 | 8.83 | 9.33 | 5.66 |
| November | 8.57 | 8.90 | 3.85 | 7.77 | 9.08 | 16.86 |
| December | 9.22 | 9.32 | 1.08 | 8.65 | 9.68 | 11.91 |
| January | 9.11 | – | – | 9.17 | – | – |
| February | 8.57 | – | – | 8.55 | – | – |
| March | 7.20 | – | – | 6.21 | – | – |
| Source: JPC, *provisional data for 2020-21(September, 20-December, 20) | ||||||
This information was given by the Union Minister for Steel Shri Dharmendra Pradhan in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.