Stainless steel demand in India to increase 9%

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31 Aug 2008

India's stainless steel demand is expected to rise 8-9 per cent in the current fiscal year and double in the next five years, as more of the alloy is used to make railway coaches and buildings, an industry official said. India's buoyant demand contrasts with a gloomy global outlook, with the International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) seeing little recovery in demand in 2008 from a year ago when rising prices of key raw materials forced production cuts. India, the world's fifth-largest consumer of the material, consumes 1.5 million tonnes of stainless steel a year, about 70 per cent for kitchenware, but its use in railway coaches, wagons, airports, hotels and retail stores is rising sharply.
"If you have a 300,000-strong middle-class, they consume 10 kg each. So three million tonnes demand is foreseeable," NC Mathur, president of the Indian Stainless Steel Development Association, said on Friday.
Railways demand
Demand from Indian Railways is set to soar to 140,000 tonnes over the year from the earlier annual usage of 25,000 tonnes as it produces lighter and cheaper to maintain rolling stock, while infrastructure projects would further lift consumption, Mathur said.
The country's demand forecast over the longer term is double the global projection of 5-6 per cent annual growth, Mathur said, as India has a low per-capita consumption of stainless steel.
India, which produced 1.66 million tonnes of stainless steel in 2007, will increase its annual production to 2-2.5 million tonnes in 4-5 years, Mathur, who is also a director at India's top stainless steel maker Jindal Stainless, said.
Global stainless steel production fell 2.4 per cent in 2007, compared with a jump of 16.6 per cent the year before, according to data from the ISSF, which expects production to rise by 5 per cent in 2008.

Source: Reuters