India’s steel exports hit a one-and-a-half year high in January, 2024. Data maintained with BigMint reveals that the volumes touched 1.11 million tonnes (mnt) last month. Similar levels were last seen in May 2022. Volumes over the first 10 months (April-January) of the current fiscal of 2023-24 (FY’24), however, showed a marginal 2% dip to 6.91 mnt against 7.07 mnt in the same period in FY’23. Commodity wise, flat steel exports mainly drove up the volumes, especially hot rolled coils (HRCs) and galvanised. On a y-o-y basis, finished flat steels, which had a whopping 90% share in India’s steel exports in January, showed a 39% m-o-m increase to 1 mnt against 0.72 mnt in December 2023. In flats, the share of HRCs was the highest at 49% or 0.55 mnt. Galvanised had the second-highest share of 25% at 0.29 mnt.
