India’s steel exports remained flat in financial year 2023-24 (FY’24) at around 8.76 million tonnes (mnt) compared to 8.75 mnt in FY’23. Exports to some of the key geographies showed a y-o-y fall, which kept total volumes flat. For Indian mills, home demand was better compared to overseas last fiscal because of a sustained pre-election infra push, and offering better realisations too. For instance, if Indian export offers averaged $596/t FOB last fiscal, then domestic realisations, in dollar parity, offered almost $673/t (INR 56,000/t) for benchmark (HRCs) and $653/t for domestic rebars (INR 54,325/t), creating a stronger case for home focus.
