India to Unleash Massive Special Steel Surge with 57 Game-Changing Agreements

India: The Indian Ministry of Steel, under the leadership of Minister Jyotirditya Scindia, has announced the signing of 57 agreements with 27 companies. These agreements are aimed at developing new production capacities that can result in the creation of 25 million metric tons of special Steel in India during the next five years. In total, the Ministry of Steel will invest $3.66 billion towards this initiative.

Under the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme, the Ministry has signed agreements with Steel companies to provide them with fiscal incentives from a government fund of $770 million that has been set up for the Steel sector. The incentives will be provided based on each metric ton of new capacity created to produce speciality Steel. The disbursement of funds will take place over a period of five years, in accordance with a predetermined formula.

India has now become the world's second-largest producer of Steel, and within the past nine years, its per capita consumption of Steel has risen significantly from 56 kg to 78 kg.

In the fiscal year 2013-14, the domestic Steel capacity stood at 100 million mt, while the production was 82 million mt. However, in the fiscal year 2022-23, the installed capacity increased substantially to 154 million mt, and the production also rose to 125 million mt.