According to Mining News Pro - Russia and Ukraine account for nearly 20 per cent of the global export of steel. In the aftermath of the war, the price of steel has gone up in India by Rs 14,000 per tonne. This has affected construction, auto-parts and bicycle industries.
To save the domestic steel consuming industries, PM Narendra Modi has been urged to intervene and ban the export of iron ore, withdraw duties and customs on import of steel and impose a 10 per cent export duty.
Talking to The New Indian Express, president of the All Industries and Trade Forum, Badish Jindal said, "Fifteen days back, steel ingot prices were Rs 47,000 per tonne. Today, it is Rs 61,000 per tonne. It's almost a 25 per cent rise. Due to this, steel-consuming industries have suffered losses of Rs 50,000 crore."
"On Monday, we wrote to the PM demanding ban on export of iron ore, withdrawal of all duties and customs from import of any kind of steel and a 10 per cent export duty on steel and steel products to save the domestic industry. Otherwise, the industry will close down," he added.
Jindal added that the state owned steel companies have also increased their rates by Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 per tonne from March 1. "From Rs 54,000, it has gone over Rs 60,000. Indian steel companies have started exporting iron ore to European countries to make profits because Europe gets most of it from Russia
and Ukraine," Jindal said.
He said that last year, 105 million tonnes of steel was produced in India, 4.50 million was imported, while 11 million was exported. "The stock of all steel companies in Punjab have almost dried up. Per month, four lakh tonnes of primary steel material used to come to the state. Besides, Punjab manufactured 15 lakh tonnes of steel in the 300 steel furnaces and rolling mills in the state per month," he said.
KB Thakur, secretary general of All India Cycle Manufactures Association, said: "The high rise of steel prices are directly impacting the competitive cost of bicycle manufacturing. This is having a cascade effect. Profit margins are low. For every 10 per cent increase in input cost, bicycle prices increase by 7 to 8 per cent."
Ukraine crisis threatening steel industry
The war in Ukraine is threatening the free trade agreement signed between this country and Turkey, Ekol Demir Çelik chairwoman Elif Tulay has said.
The agreement was signed last month to increase bilateral trade to $10 billion, but now the Turkish steel industry needs protection against the economic fallout from the conflict, Demirören News Agency quoted her as saying.
“Due to its geographical position, we have close export and import ties with Ukraine. We have been procuring most of the raw materials for the iron and steel industry from this country,” she said.
The Ukrainian market is particularly important for high-quality steel, she added.
Although Ekol Demir Çelik has enough stockpile of raw materials and high-quality steel, she is worried about the sector as a whole, Tulay noted.
Turkey’s total crude steel production increased by 12.7 percent to reach an all-time high of 40.4 million tons last year, according to data released by the Turkish Steel Producers’ Association (TÇÜD) on Jan. 24.
Turkey was the world’s eighth-largest crude steel producer after China, India, Japan, the United States, Russia, South Korea and Germany.
Brazil, Iran and Italy followed Turkey with their respective crude steel production volume.