New Delhi: ICRA on Wednesday revised its outlook for domestic steel demand to 7-8 percent for the next fiscal. Earlier, the rating agency had estimated the demand to grow in the range of 6-7 percent. "With the central government's capex outlay in FY2024, ICRA has revised upwards its steel consumption growth estimate for FY2024 to 7-8 percent from 6-7 percent," it said in a report.
In 2023-24, the capital expenditure is budgeted at Rs 10 lakh crore which will constitute 3.3 percent of GDP. In the ongoing fiscal, the domestic steel consumption growth has remained strong supported by the government's push for infrastructure-led economic growth.
Jayanta Roy, Senior Vice-President and Group Head, Corporate Sector Ratings at ICRA, said, "With steel consumption expected to grow in high-single digits next year, we expect the industry's capacity utilisation rate to improve to around 80 percent in FY2024, despite the commissioning of some new expansion projects." The consumption of finished steel in India was 107.20 million tonnes during April-February of FY23.
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