Comments
New Delhi, February 21 Russia has emerged the fourth largest exporter of steel to India for the April–January period with a five-fold rise in shipments. It has also displaced Japan as the largest supplier of hot rolled coils (HRCs), for the first time in eight years.
Of the 0.28 million tonne (mt) of finished steel shipped in India – the world’s second largest crude steel producer - from Russia in the April – January period, around 0.21 mt – a lion’s share of 72 per cent - was HRCs and strips.
In the year-ago-period (10MFY22), shipments from Russia were 0.048 mt. HRC coil and strip shipments from Japan during the year were 0.14 mt.
This is the first time that Russia has emerged as one of the key steel importing nations, and amongst the top five importing nations, replacing countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia, data from the Ministry of Steel, accessed by businessline, show.
“If you seem Russian offerings came at a discount, specially there was distress sales and in some cases offerings from Russia – mostly hot rolled coils – were 20 -30 per cent lower than the market prices,” an exporter said.
Ministry data showed total steel imports (semis and finished put together) from Russia were valued at $360 million for the April–January period; of which 86 per cent or $308 million was finished steel imports.
Calculations suggest, the average per tonne price of Russian HRC to India was around ₹45,000 per tonne (around $550 per tonne).
“Volume-wise HRC coils / strip (1.69 mt) was the item most imported, with 34 per cent share in total finished steel,” the Ministry report mentioned, adding that import of flat products accounted for 93 per cent share (up by 29.2 per cent), the rest 7 per cent include long and non-flat offerings (up by 13.8 per cent).
According to the data, overall imports of total finished steel stood at 5 mt up by 28 per cent, YoY.
Korea, largest importer
Korea, with shipments amounting to 1.841 mt, was the largest importer to India (37 per cent market share); followed by China (1.2 mt) and Japan (0.7 mt). Shipments from Vietnam rose 195 per cent, YoY, to 0.19 mt.
The report says import of total finished steel was valued at ₹54,534 crore whereas export of total finished steel was valued at ₹44,463 crore. Thus, overall trade deficit (total finished steel) stood at ₹10,071 crore during 10MFY23.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.