India's imports of steel from Japan and South Korea have increased significantly

India's imports of steel from Japan and South Korea have increased significantly

Summary

Although India's domestic steel demand has shrunk, steel imports have grown a lot, especially from South Korea. From the data point of view, India's imports of steel from China have decreased, but the increase in steel imports from South Korea and Japan to make up for this gap.

India's imports of steel from Japan and South Korea have increased significantly

Affected by the decline in the growth rate of the Indian automarket in the second half of the fiscal year of 2019 (April 1, 2018 to March31, 2019), India's domestic steel consumption growth rate from 2018 (April 1 to2018, 2017) 7.9% of March 31) slowed to 7.5% in FY 2019.


In April 2019, Indian steel consumption demand growth slowedfurther to 6.4%, and may be lower than the average of the first quarter of 2020(April 1, 2019 to June 30, 2019), mainly due to The automotive industrycontinues to be weak and the construction projects are reduced during theIndian election.


It is understood that in the fiscal year of 2019, Indiansteel imports increased by 4.7% year-on-year, and exports fell by 34%year-on-year, becoming a net importer of steel. Some analysts believe thatIndia's steel imports Are expected to decline in the next few months, becausethe current domestic hot rolled coil prices in India are about 6% lower thanthe import price. Although the import volume is expected to decrease, due toweak seasonal demand, India's domestic crude steel output May maintain amoderate growth in the second quarter of fiscal year 2020 (July 1, 2019 toSeptember 30, 2019). It will gradually recover in the second half of the 2020fiscal year.