India's steel exports fell 23% year-on-year in October, imports rose 17% year-on-year

Recently, India's Joint Plant Committee released data showingthat in October 2018, India's steel exports were 596,000 tons, down 23.4%year-on-year. According to data from the Joint Factory Committee, in October2017, Indian steel exports were 778,000 tons. The committee is part of theIndian Steel Department and is the only organization in India that collects andmaintains data on the domestic steel industry.

In October, India's steel imports were 706,000 tons, anincrease of 17.3% from 602,000 tons in the same period last year. In the samemonth, India's steel output was 11.029 million tons, up 6.1% from 10.998million tons in the same period last year. The United Steel Works Committeesaid that in October, India's steel consumption was 8.315 million tons, anincrease of 8.4% from 7.672 million tons in the same period last year.

Earlier, Indian Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh saidthat India should reduce its dependence on imports of special steel products byincreasing value and forming joint ventures with leading global technologyexperts.Although India is the world's second-largest steel producer, someproducts still rely on imports, so India needs to develop electrical steel andautomotive steel technology to achieve self-sufficiency in steel.