India’s finished steel exports dropped by 8pc to 570,000mt in February from 619,000mt in the prior year, on low demand from Europe and Southeast Asia due to the COVID-19 outbreak, according to the government data.
India continued to remain the net exporter of finished steel in April 2019–Feb 2020 period with 7.78mn mt of exports, up by 34.9pc from the prior-year period. Vietnam, Italy, Belgium and Spain were the top importers of finished steel during that period. Imports of finished steel into the country were 6.39mn mt, down by 10.4pc.
India’s finished steel output in Feb 2020 rose by 3.4pc to 8.56mn mt from 8.28mn mt in Feb 2019. Finished steel consumption in the April 2019-Feb 2020 period was 92.603mn mt, up by 3.8pc from the prior-year period. In February, Indian steel consumption fell by 8.01pc to 8.18mn mt from 8.89mn mt in January due to an economic slowdown.