India’s achieves unique feat among top steel producing countries in 2022

India is the world’s second largest steel producer and it achieved another distinction in 2022 as total production rose compared with the previous year, even as most other top producers registered a dip. 

According to the latest report by World Steel Association, the total crude steel production in India in 2022 was pegged at 125.3 million tonnes (MT), slightly higher than the previous year’s 118.2 MT. 

While it may look only like a marginal increase, it assumes significance because it has come at a time when most of the largest steel producers globally saw a fall in production. 

China, the largest steel producer, saw its output fall to 1.01 billion tonnes in 2022 from 1.03 billion tonnes in 2021. Similarly, Japan, which occupies the third spot, saw its output at 89.2 MT in 2022, lower than the previous year’s 96.3 MT. 

The US (80.5 MT in 2022 from 85.8 MT) and Russia (71.5 MT in 2022 from 77 MT)—the fourth and fifth largest producers—also registered a drop in production of crude steel. 

Incidentally, Iran is the only other country in the top 10 nations that registered a rise in production as its output went up to 30.6 MT in 2022 from the previous year’s 28.3 MT. 

Overall, global crude steel production fell to 1.89 billion tonnes in 2022 from 1.96 billion tonnes in 2021. 

Interestingly, steel production has come a long way since 1950 when it was a mere 189 MT. Annual production breached the 1 billion tonnes mark for the first time in 2004.  

The top 10 steel producing companies include: China Baowu Group (131.84 MT), ArcelorMittal (68.89 MT), Ansteel Group (55.65 MT), Nippon Steel Corporation (44.37 MT), Shagang Group (41.45 MT), HBIS Group (41 MT), POSCO Holdings (38.64 MT), Jianlong Group (36.56 MT), Shougang Group (33.82 MT) and Tata Steel (30.18 MT). 

India’s JSW Steel and SAIL also feature among the top steel producing companies, occupying the 15^th and 21^st positions. 

On a different note, India occupied the 12^th position in the list of steel exporting nations, with total exports of 12.1 MT in 2022. China occupied the top spot with 68.1 MT of exports, followed by Japan (31.7 MT), the European Union (26 MT), South Korea (25.5 MT) and Germany (22.3 MT).

Meanwhile, the Indian Steel Association (ISA) estimates that domestic steel demand in the FY24 will grow by 7.5 per cent to reach 128.85 MT from 119.86 MT in FY23. In FY25 it expects demand to increase by a further 6.3 per cent to reach 136.97 MT. 

“In an otherwise gloomy global economic environment, India has been a bright spot, defying global trends… The steel sector has benefited from strong economic growth as the correlation between growth in steel demand and GDP growth is quite strong, especially if the economy grows by around 6 per cent or more with the multiplier being more than one in such scenarios,” said ISA in a recent note. 

“Driven by a strong momentum in Infrastructure spending and sustained growth in urban consumption, steel demand in India will continue to expand by 8-9 MT each year in the next two financial years, resulting in an expected growth of 7.5 per cent in 2023-24 and 6.3 per cent in 2024-25,” it added.