India stainless steel production may hit 5 mmt by 2016

MUMBAI (Scrap Monster): The Indian stainless steel melt production reached 2.9 million tonnes in 2010 and finished products 2.6 million tonnes respectively. The total Indian demand on a finished product basis was 2.4 million tonnes in 2010, said Research and Markets, leading providers of market research and information worldwide.

Thus, India already is the 4th largest producer (behind China, European Union and Japan) and 3rd largest consumer (behind China and the European Union) of stainless steel. Both demand and production are expected to grow in India by around 10 % p.a. during the coming 5 years.

By 2016, finished product demand could exceed 4 million tonnes and also exports are likely to grow substantially. Based on this, crude stainless steel production could touch the 5 million metric tons mark in India.

Indian Stainless Steel crude production has been rising very fast, especially since 1990, when CrMn steel production started to ‘take off’. Production in 2010 was 162 times higher than in 1978, 13 times higher than in 1990 and almost 3 times higher than in 2000, reaching 2.92 million tonnes in 2010.

Today, a large share of the market is dominated by pattas (=cold rolled sheets), a product which is unique to India.