India's steel imports rose 28 per cent to $16.29 billion (about Rs 1.04 lakh crore) last fiscal as the country became a net importer of the metal, Parliament was informed today.

India, the world's fourth-largest steel producer, had imported steel worth $12.71 billion in 2013-14, data presented by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha showed.

India's out-bound shipment of the metal, however, grew marginally to $16.24 billion in 2014-15, from $16.03 billion in the year-ago period, the data showed.

The data for 2014-15 are on a provisional basis. "India has been a net importer of steel since 2007-08 until 2013-14 when the country became a net exporter for that year only. In 2014-15 again, India was a net importer of steel," Sitharaman informed the House.

In 2014-15, the Minister said capacity utilisation of the Indian  steel industry improved to 85 per cent provisionally from 80.9 per cent in 2013-14. Production of crude steel was 7.9 per cent higher at 88.12 million tonnes (MT) in 2014-15.

"In the present deregulated market set-up, imports of steel are completely market driven and take place mainly due to the domestic non-availability or limited availability of specialised steel products and partly due to price considerations," she added.

 

economictimes.indiatimes.com

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