The country’s total production stood at 27.3 MT, compared to 24.9 MT of Japan.
India has maintained its lead over Japan in the global steel market in the first quarter of 2019 after it became the second largest steel producer in the world, in 2018. China is the largest steel producer in the world. India has become second largest producer by replacing Japan, which has now been pushed to number three.
According to the latest report of the World Steel Association (WSA), India has maintained its second position in the first three months (January, February and March) of this year. India’s total production stood at 27.3 million tonne (MT), compared to 24.9 MT of Japan.
India earned the distinction of becoming the second largest steel producer in 2018, as per the report of the WSA which was released in January this year. As per the report, in 2018, the world crude steel production reached 1808.6 MT and showed a growth of 4.6% over 2017. China remained world’s largest crude steel producer in 2018 with 928.3 MT, followed by India (106.5 MT), Japan (104.3 MT) and USA (86.7 MT). Interestingly, India had superseded the US in 2015 to become the third largest steel producing country, after China and Japan. Thus, it has jumped to the second position, superseding Japan, in just three years.
The WSA, in its project, has projected the Indian steel demand to grow by 7.3% in 2019, while globally the same has been projected to grow by 1.4% in 2019. Chinese steel use is projected to show nil growth in this year.
In the first three months (of 2019), the world crude steel production was 444.1 MT, up by 4.5% to the same period in 2018. While Asia produced 312.9 MT, the European Union produced 42.3 MT, North America 30.7 MT, as per the latest report.
According to official sources, the Indian steel industry has entered into a new development stage, post-deregulation, riding high on the resurgent economy and rising demand for steel. “This rapid rise in production has resulted in India becoming the second largest producer of crude steel during 2018, from its third largest status in 2017,” an official said.
The government has released the National Steel Policy 2017, which has laid down the roadmap for encouraging long term growth for the India steel industry, both on demand and supply sides, by 2030-31. The government has also announced a policy for providing preference to domestically manufactured iron and steel products in the government procurement.
Besides China, India, Japan and US, others in the top 10 steel producing countries include South Korea, Russia, Germany, Turkey, Brazil and Iran. WSA is one of the industry associations in the world, whose members represent around 85% of the world’s steel production.