Finished steel export volumes from India registered a significant fall of around 32% m-o-m in Nov ’21, as per provisional data released by the Joint Plant Committee (JPC). Export volumes stood at 0.722 million tonnes (mn t) in Nov’21 versus 1.055 mn t in Oct’21.
Traditional import markets such as Vietnam, Europe and others have not been importing actively from India lately due to various reasons, such as exhausted Europe quotas, and major Vietnamese mills cutting prices for Dec’21 deliveries.
In addition to the above, falling global prices have dented demand in the overseas markets. For instance, average monthly export offers from China have witnessed a drop of around $168/tonne (t) to $806/t FOB China in Nov’21 as against $974/t a month ago, whereas, that of the SteelMint India HRC export index stood at $841/t FOB east-coast in Nov’21, down by $32/t from $874/t FOB a month ago.
However, on an yearly basis, export volumes saw a 21% rise against 0.598 mn t in Nov’20.
Crude steel production drops marginally, m-o-m
Crude steel production of the Indian steel majors dipped around 2% to 9.635 mn t in Nov’21 compared to 9.793 mn t a month ago. However, the volume remained largely stable on an yearly basis against 9.609 mn t in Nov’20.
Improved capacity utilisations along with the addition of new capacities resulted in an increase in production. For instance, recently, JSW completed its Dolvi expansion from 5 mntpa to 10 mntpa which is likely to add up to production volumes in the near term.
In the first 8MFY’22 (April-November), volumes grew by 21% to 76.439 mn t against CPLY.
Finished steel production down 3% m-o-m
Finished steel production volumes dropped 3% to 9.188 mn t in Nov ’21 as against 9.503 mn t a month back. However, on y-o-y basis, production volumes moved up marginally by 2% against 9.034 mn t in Nov’20.
Production levels have been lower owing to the reduced demand for finished steel in the past few months. For instance, the apparent steel use (ASU) or consumption has fallen in the past couple of months. In Sep’21, it stood at around 9.396 mn t, dropping to 8.752 mn t in October and further dropping by 3% to 8.468 mn t in November.
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