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International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research Vol.2 Issue 1, January 2012, ISSN 2231 5780

THE INDIAN STEEL SECTOR: DEVELOPMENT AND POTENTIAL

DR. SURESH VADDE*; G. SRINIVAS**
*Associate Professor, Department of Accounting & Finance, College of Business Management & Economics Mekelle University, Melelle, Ethiopia. **Assistant Professor, Department Business Management, V.R. College of Management Warangal (A.P) India.

ABSTRACT The Indian steel industry has made a rapid progress on strong fundamentals over the recent few years. The industry is getting all essential ingredients required for dynamic growth. The government is backing the industry through favorable industrial reforms, while the private sector is supporting it with investments worth billions of dollars. Even in the tough times of economic slowdown, the industry succeeded to sustain its positive growth momentum on the strong fundamentals of domestic demand from construction, automobile and infrastructure sectors. With an impressive track record, the country has become a reputed name in the world steel industry. Global steel giants from all over the world have shown interest in the industry because of its phenomenal performance. For instance - the crude steel production in India registered a moderate year-on-year growth of 2.7% in 2009 and reached 56.6 Million Metric Tons. On the other side, some Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea saw significant decline in their production levels. This further signifies the resilience and strength of the Indian steel industry against external risk factors. This paper presents the global scenario of steel industry as well as Production, consumption and growth of steel industry in India. In the second part; the author has made an attempt to highlight the Trends in production of Crude Steel in private/public sector in India. In the final facet of this paper; the author concludes with the challenges and opportunities of Indian steel industry. KEYWORDS: Steel Industry, Domestic Demand, Crude Steel Production, Post-liberalization. ______________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Steel is crucial to the development of any modern economy and is considered to be the backbone of human civilization. The level of per capita consumption of steel is treated as an important index of the level of socioeconomic development and living standards of the people in any country. It is a product of a large and technologically complex industry having strong forward and backward linkages in terms of material flows and income generation. All major industrial economies are characterized by the existence of a strong steel industry and the growth of many of these economies has been largely shaped by the strength of their steel industries in their initial stages of development. Steel industry was in the vanguard in the liberalization of the industrial Sector and has made rapid strides since then. The new Greenfield plants represent the latest in technology. Output has increased, the industry has moved up in the value
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chain and exports have raised consequent to a greater integration with the global economy. The new plants have also brought about a greater regional dispersion easing the domestic supply position notably in the western region. At the same time, the domestic steel industry faces new challenges. Some of these relate to the trade barriers in developed markets and certain structural problems of the domestic industry notably due to the high cost of commissioning of new projects. The domestic demand too has not improved to significant levels. The litmus test of the steel industry will be to surmount these difficulties and remain globally competitive. OBJECTIVES OF THE PRESENT STUDY The following objectives have been framed by keeping in view of the relevance of the study in the present situation. To present the global scenario of steel industry as well as the production, consumption and growth of steel industry in India. To study the trends in production of Crude Steel in private and public sector in India. To highlights the challenges and opportunities of Indian steel industry.

SOURCE OF THE STUDY The study is based on the data collected from secondary source which is gathered from the Annual Reports of different steel sectors, published materials in the form of books, articles from journals, websites and reports are relevant to the study. The study of steel industry in India covers a period of 05-years, commencing from 31st March, 2005 to 2011. HISTORY OF IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRY IN INDIA: Iron and steel industry in the country has experienced a sustainable growth since the independence of the country. A humble beginning of the modern steel industry was reached in India at Kulti in West Bengal in the year 1870. But the outset of bigger production became noticeable with the establishment of a steel plant in Jamshedpur in Bihar in 1907. It started production in 1912. The new township was named after Jamshedji Tata. This venture was followed by Burnpur and Bhadrawati Steel plants in 1919 and 1923 respectively. It was, however, only after Independence that the steel industry was able to find a strong foothold in the country. Excluding the Jamshedpur plant of the Tatas, all are in the public sector and looked after by Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL). Bhilai and Bokaro Steel plant were set up with Soviet alliance. Durgapur and Rourkela came up with British and West German technical expertise, respectively. The finished steel production in India has grown from a mere 1.1 million tonnes in 1951 to 23.372 million tonnes in 1997-98. During the first two decades of planned economic development, i.e. 1950-60 and 1960-70 the average annual growth rate of steel production exceeded 8%. However, this growth rate could not be maintained in the decades to follow. During 1970-80, the growth rate in steel production came down to 5.7% per annum and picked

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up marginally to 6.4% per annum during 1980-90.Though India started steel production in 1911, steel exports from India began only in 1964. Exports in the first five years were mainly due to recession in the domestic iron and steel market. Once domestic demand revived, exports declined. India once again started exporting steel only in 1975 touching a figure of 1 million tonne of pig iron export and 1.4 million tonnes of steel export in 1976-77. Thereafter, exports again fell rapidly to meet rising domestic demand. Only after liberalisation of the steel sector the exports of iron and steel have once again started increasing. Though the country's production of iron and steel is sufficient to meet the domestic demand, however, some quantity of steel is always needed to be imported especially those grades and qualities which are required in small quantities, and therefore do not justify setting up of production capacities. STEEL INDUSTRY: GLOBAL SCENARIO The current global steel industry is in its best position in comparing to last decades. The price has been rising continuously. The demand expectations for steel products are rapidly growing for coming years. The shares of steel industries are also in a high pace. The steel industry is enjoying its 6th consecutive years of growth in supply and demand. And there is many more merger and acquisitions which overall buoyed the industry and showed some good results. The supreme crisis has lead to the recession in economy of different countries, which may lead to have a negative effect on whole steel industry in coming years. However steel production and consumption will be supported by continuous economic growth. TABLE-01: WORLD CRUDE STEEL PRODUCTION IN 2010 Rank Country Production (million tonne) 626.56 109.60 80.59 67.00 66.80 58.45 43.82 33.56 32.82 29.00

Global crude steel production reached 1414 million tonne in calendar year 2010, a growth of 15% over 2009. China was the largest crude steel producer in the world with production reaching 626.56 million tonne, a growth of 9.2% over 2009. India once again emerged as the 5th largest producer in 2010 and recorded a growth of 11.3% as compared to 2009. India also emerged as the largest sponge iron producing country in the world in 2010, a rank it has held on

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1 China 2 Japan 3 USA 4 Russia 5 India 6 South Korea 7 Germany 8 Ukraine 9 Brazil 10 Turkey Source: World Steel Association; Annual Reports 2010.

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since 2002. If proposed expansions plans are implemented as per schedule, India may become the second largest crude steel producer in the world by 2015-16. PRODUCTION, CONSUMPTION AND GROWTH OF STEEL INDUSTRY IN INDIA The rapid pace of growth of the industry and the observed market trends called for certain guidelines and framework. Thus was born the concept of the National Steel Policy, with the aim to provide a roadmap of growth and development for the Indian steel industry. India is one of the few countries where the steel industry is poised for rapid growth. Indias share in world production of crude steel increased from 1.5% in 1981 to around 3.5 % in 2004. While plant closures and privatization are rare in India, the private sector is considered to be the engine of growth in the steel industry and technological changes and modernization are taking place in both the public and the private sector integrated steel plants in India. TABLE-02: TOTAL FINISHED STEEL (ALLOY + NON-ALLOY) ('000 TONNE) Year Year Production for sale Import Export 4305 4927 7029 5841 7296 5359 4801 5242 5077 4437 3235 2462 Consumption 41433 46783 52125 52351 57675 44275

2005-06 46566 2006-07 52529 2007-08 56075 2008-09 57164 2009-10 60892 April-Dec 47296 2010-11 Source: Joint Plant Committee (JPC), Annual Reports 2010.

Table-02 explains about the production, consumption and growth of steel industry in India. The Production of steel in India is a constant growth every year since 2005-10. Whereas, the maximum import of the steel from the foreign countries occupied first place during the year 2009-10 and it can be found that the maximum exports are during the year 2006-07. While the consumption pattern of steel in India is a constant demand for every year. PRODUCTION OF SPONGE IRON India is also a leading producer of sponge iron with a host of coal based units, located in the mineral-rich states of the country. Over the years, the coal based route has emerged as a key contributor to overall production; its share has increased from 69% in 2005-06 to 70% in 2009-10. Capacity in sponge iron making has also increased over the years and currently stands at 32 million tonne. The table below shows the production of sponge iron in the country in the last five years and 2010-11 (April-December 2010) indicating the break-up of the share of coal and gas based route of production:
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TABLE-03: PRODUCTION OF SPONGE IRON Year Coal based 2005-06 10.28 2006-07 13.08 2007-08 14.53 2008-09 15.57 2009-10 14.58 6.16 20.74 2010-11 15.52 4.48 20

Gas based 4.54 5.26 5.84 5.52 Total 14.82 18.34 20.37 21.09 Source: Joint Plant Committee (JPC), Annual Reports 2010. PRODUCTION OF PIG IRON

India is also an important producer of pig iron. Post-liberalisation, with setting up of several units in the private sector, not only imports have drastically reduced but also India has turned out to be a net exporter of pig iron. The private sector accounts for nearly 90% of total production for sale of pig iron in the country. The domestic availability situation of pig iron is given in the table below: TABLE-04: PIG IRON DOMESTIC AVAILABILITY SCENARIO ('000 TONNE) Year 2005-06 2006-07 Production 4695 4953 Import 3 3 Export 440 707 Consumption 4136 4336 Source: JPC, Annual Reports 2010. 2007-08 5284 11 560 4621 2008-09 6207 8 350 5870 2009-10 5734 11 278 5465 2010- 11 4217 7 209 3937

TRENDS IN PRODUCTION OF CRUDE STEEL IN PRIVATE/PUBLIC SECTOR Traditionally, Indian steel industry has been classified into Main Producers (SAIL plants, Tata Steel and Vizag Steel/ RINL), Major Producers (plants with crude steel making capacity above 0.5 million tonne - Essar Steel, JSW Steel, Jindal Steel & Power and Ispat Industries) and Other Producers. The latter comprises of numerous steel making plants producing crude steel/finished steel (long product/flat product)/ pig iron/ sponge iron and are spread across the different states of the country. The following table highlights the total as also the contribution of the private and public sector in crude steel production in the country: TABLE-05: TRENDS IN PRODUCTION OF CRUDE STEEL Year 2005-06 2006-07 Public Sector 16.964 17.003 Private Sector 29.496 33.814 Total Production 46.46 50.817 Source: JPC; Annual Reports 2010. 2007-08 17.091 36.766 53.857 2008-09 16.372 42.065 58.437 2009-10 16.714 48.161 64.875 2010-11 Jan-Dec 12.579 38.015 50.594

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It is observed from the table-05 that in public sector the trend per cent in production of crude steel in India was a constant growth during the year 2005 to 2007. (i.e. an average of 17%). But, from the year 2008 onwards the trend in the production of steel was in decline stage. The private sector of the Steel Industry is currently playing an important role in production and growth of steel industry in India. There is a constant growth rate every year in production of since 2005-10. It can be concluded that the trend percentage of public sector crude steel is in decline stage when compare with private sector. CAPACITY EXPANSION PLANS IN INDIA Indias current steel production capacity is 62 million tonne per annum, including both public and private producers. According to the Ministry of Steel, by 2011-12, the capacity is expected to touch 124 million tonne per annum on the back of major expansion plans announced by the steel producers. According to the Steel Ministry, around 222 MoUs have been signed with various states for planned capacity of around 276 million tonne. Major investment plans are in the States of Orissa, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra. TABLE-06: CAPACITY EXPANSION PLANS ANNOUNCED BY STATES State Orissa Jharkhand Chattisgarh West Bengal Other states Total Source: Annual Reports 2010. No. of MoU signed 49 65 74 12 22 222 Capacity (million tonne per annum) 75.66 104.23 56.61 21 18.2 275.7*

PRESENT GROWTH SCENARIO AND FUTURE OUTLOOK India was the 5th largest producer of crude steel in the world in 2010, based on rankings released by World Steel Association. Domestic crude steel production grew at a compounded annual growth rate of 8.4 per cent during 2005-06 to 2009-10. This growth was driven by both capacity expansion (from 47.99 million tonne in 2004-05 to 72.96 million

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TATA Steel has also envisaged massive expansion at Jharkhand, Orissa and Chattisgarh. The company is planning to increase its capacity of hot metal and steel production by 3 million tonne to reach 10 million tonne per annum. The capacity expansion of JSW Steels Vijayanagar plant is in progress and is likely to be completed by 2010, with a total installed capacity of 9.6 million tonne per annum. Essar Steel is also planning to increase its capacity of Hazira plant (Gujarat) from 4.6 million tonne per annum to 8.5 million tonne per annum. Bhushan steel is planning to enhance the capacity of the Orissa plant from 1.90 million tonne per annum of HR coils to 3.60 million tonne per annum and total steel making from 3.0 million tonne per annum to 6.0 million tonne per annum.

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tonne in 2009-10) and improved capacity utilisation. India, the world's largest producer of direct reduced iron (DRI) or sponge iron, is also expected to maintain its lead in the near future. Sponge iron production grew at a CAGR of 11 per cent to reach a level of 20.74 million tonne in 2009-10 compared to 14.83 million tonne in 2005-06. India is expected to become the second largest producer of steel in the world by 2015-16, provided all requirements for fresh capacity creation are met. Indian steel industry has just come out of the slowdown that affected its performance during 2008-09. Domestically, 2010 ended on a relatively better and encouraging note, with CSO reporting an overall improvement of economic situation through its GDP data, which showed a robust 8.9 per cent growth during Apr-Sept 2010-11. IIP too had registered a strong 10.2 per cent growth during Apr-Sept. 2010-11, further bolstering the idea that the demand side is back on stable footing. For steel, this is of key importance and the growth rates registered for leading end-use segments like manufacturing, consumer durables, construction, the stable growth of the service sector and agriculture sector spell good news. April-December 2010 provisional data released by JPC indicates a 8 per cent rise in consumption of total finished steel. Globally also there are signs of improvement in economic conditions and firming up of demand and prices. CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES CHALLENGES Compared to the global average per capita consumption of 150 kgs, India's per capita consumption of steel is still a mere 39 kgs. per head. Even by Asian standards India have a long way to go in the consumption of steel. Technologically, the main hurdles before Indian steel industry are the cost of power and non availability of metallurgical coke. UNREMUNERATIVE PRICES Stagnating demand, domestic oversupply and falling prices in the last four years have hit Indian steel makers. Barring the sporadic rise in demand in the recent months, it has suffered from unremunerative prices to the extent that companies have been finding it difficult to maintain capital costs.
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ENDEMIC DEFICIENCIES These are inherent in the quality and availability of some of the essential raw materials available in India, e.g. high ash content of indigenous coking coal adversely affecting the productive efficiency of iron-making and is generally imported. Advantage of high Fe content of indigenous ore is often neutralized by high basic index. Besides, certain key ingredients of steel making, e.g., nickel, ferromolybdenum are also unavailable indigenously. SYSTEMIC DEFICIENCIES However, most of the weaknesses of the Indian steel industry can be classified as

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systemic deficiencies. Some of these are described here. HIGH COST OF CAPITAL Steel is a capital intensive industry; steel companies in India are charged an interest rate of around 14% on capital as compared to 2.4% in Japan and 6.4% in USA. LOW LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY In India, the advantages of cheap labour gets offset by low labour productivity; eg, at comparable capacities labour productivity of SAIL and TISCO is 75 t/man year and 100 t/man year, for POSCO, Korea and NIPPON, Japan the values are 1345 t/man year and 980 t/man year. HIGH COST OF BASIC INPUTS AND SERVICES The electricity, eg, cost of electricity is 3 cents in the USA as compared to 10 cents in India; and freight cost from Jamshedpur to Mumbai is $50/tonne compared to only $34 from Rotterdam to Mumbai. Added to this are poor quality and ever increasing prices of coking and non-coking coal. OTHER SYSTEMIC DEFICIENCIES INCLUDE Poor quality of basic infrastructure like road, port etc Lack of expenditure in research and development. Delay in absorption in technology by existing units. Low quality of steel and steel products. Lack of facilities to produce various shapes and qualities of finished steel on-demand such as steel for automobile sector, parallel flange light weight beams, coated sheets etc. Limited access of domestic producers to good quality iron ores which are normally earmarked for exports, and High level taxation. Besides these Indian steel makers also lacked in international competitiveness on determinants like product quality, product design, on-time delivery, post sales service, distribution network, managerial initiatives, research and development, information technology and labour productivity etc. the weaknesses gets reflected in India's poor standing in the global competitiveness as measured in terms of indicated parameters.
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OPPORTUNITIES The biggest opportunity before Indian steel sector is that there is enormous scope for increasing consumption of steel in almost all sectors in India. The following graph gives a glimpse of untapped potential of increasing steel consumption in India; eg, even to reach the comparable developing and lately developed economies like China and other Europe, a quantum jump in steel consumption will be required. India has rich mineral resources. It has abundance of iron ore, coal and many other raw materials required for iron and steel making. It has the fourth largest iron ore reserves (10.3 billion tonnes) after Russia, Brazil, and Australia. Therefore, many raw materials are available at comparatively lower costs. It has the third largest pool of technical manpower, next to United States and the erstwhile USSR, capable of understanding and assimilating new technologies. Considering quality of workforce, Indian steel industry has low unit labour cost, commensurate with skill. This gets reflected in the lower production cost of steel in India compared to many advanced countries. UNEXPLORED RURAL MARKET The Indian rural sector remains fairly unexposed to their multi-faceted use of steel. The rural market was identified as a potential area of significant steel consumption way back in the year 1976 itself. However, forceful steps were not taken to penetrate this segment. Enhancing applications in rural areas assumes a much greater significance now for increasing per capital consumption of steel. The usage of steel in cost effective manner is possible in the area of housing, fencing, structures and other possible applications where steel can substitute other materials which not only could bring about advantages to users but is also desirable for conservation of forest resources. OTHER SECTORS Excellent potential exist for enhancing steel consumption in other sectors such as automobiles, packaging, engineering industries, irrigation and water supply in India. New steel products developed to improve performance simplify manufacturing/installation and reliability is needed to enhance steel consumption in these sectors Main objective here have to be improvement of quality for value addition in use, requirement of less material by reducing the weight and thickness and finally reduction in overall cost for the end user. Latest technology must be adopted by Indian steel manufacturers for production of superior quality of steel for these applications. For example, pre-coated sheets can be used in manufacture of appliances, furnishings, electric goods and public transport vehicles. Production and supply of superior grades of steel in desired shapes and sizes will definitely increase the steel consumption as this will reduce fabrication need, thereby reduce cost of using steel.

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EXPORT MARKET PENETRATION It is estimated that world steel consumption will double in next 25 years. Quality improvement of Indian steel combined with its low cost advantages will definitely help in substantial gain in export market. CONCLUSION The Indian steel industry is among the upcoming industries of the world. It has a number of iron ores, which means that it has plenty of resources from which to draw its raw material. The rate of production of steel in India has been going up at a steady rate in the last few years. In the recent times Orissa and Jharkhand have been identified as the potential steel destinations of India - the ones that would provide the Indian steel industry with its necessary raw material. There are also a number of steel companies in India like Tata and Arcelor Mittal that are either coming up or have established themselves as prominent forces in the world steel scenario. India has traditionally been regarded as one of the top steel producers of the world. In 2004 it was ranked as the seventh largest producers of steel in the world, which is testimony to the standing of the Indian steel industry of the world. India is also supposed to have the best growth potential in the context of steel and is preceded only by China, which is a prominent steel producing and consuming country of the world. According to the Ministry of Steel, India is expected to become the second largest producer of crude steel in the world by 2015-16. REFERENCES Bhardwaj, R.N., 1994: Some Aspects of Indias Iron and Steel Industry, Ph.D. Thesis (unpublished), Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, India. Chatterjee, Amit and Ramesh Singh, 1996: The Steel Industry in India, Ironmaking and Steelmaking, Vol. 23, No. 4, p. 293-302. Economic and Political Weekly, Editorial (2004). Steel Handling Upswing, May 15, 2004. Ghosh, S., (2005). Iron and Steel Industry in India - Past, Present and Future. (www.pib.nic.in, 2008). Government of India. Ministry of Steel, National Steel Policy, 2005. (www.steel.nic.in, 2008)
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Kumari, Anita, 1993: Productivity in Public Sector, Economic and Political Weekly, Nov 27, pp. M145-M162. Radhakrishna, B.P., (2007). Boom in Indias Iron and Steel Industry, Current Science, 1210 Vol. 92, NO. 9, 10 May 2007. Sidhu, Shivinder S., 1983: The Steel Industry in India: Problems and Perspective, Vikas Publishing House PVT Ltd., New Delhi, India. Steel Authority of India Ltd., 1996: Statistics for Iron & Steel Industry in India, New Delhi, India. http://jpcindiansteel.nic.in

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