Make in India programme to boost stainless steel demand

Government's Make in India programme will help in increasing stainless steel demand in the country, experts said. They also urged the government and the private players to generate steel demand in the country and give push to developments in areas like ports, civil aviation, urban infrastructure and others. Experts from the sector were participating in the fourth International Conference and Exposition on Indian Steel Industry: Going Global and Sustainable here.

"Stainless steel production share is more than 4 percent of the total steel production in India as compared to less than 2.5 percent globally. "If substitution strategy continues to replace carbon steel with stainless steel, there will be a surge in demand for stainless steel in our country," Yatinder Pal Singh Suri, Country Head, Finnish stainless steel global major Outokumpu, one of the largest stainless steel maker, said. There are over 400 grades of stainless steel for the diverse range of end use applications, he said.

In India, the dominant demand is from the utensils and kitchenware application segment, as high as 65 percent, he said adding the industrial applications constitute about 35 percent of the overall demand. "The local product range capability is rather limited, so imports are vital for high end advanced materials requirements of end users," he said. Speaking at the Steel Summit, he said per capita use of stainless steel in India is less than 2.5 kg as compared to 10 Kg in China.

"Due to Make in India campaign, the need for stainless steel for industrial equipment will gallop and hopefully in next decade we can aim to achieve per capita of 6 Kg. Imagine how much more capacities we would create to meet that demand," he said. Research and development capability in domestic stainless industry needs to be enhanced, he said.

The government should encourage cooperation between the global majors and local mills to upgrade domestic capabilities, steel makers opined. India has extremely ambitious infrastructure growth plans ahead, they said.