According to Deloitte report - ‘Steel Outlook of 2030 and 2047’, the steel industry will also get a boost from government spending on infrastructure—almost 62 percent of steel goes into infrastructure construction—as it announced almost INR 10 lakh crore of infrastructure spending in the current budget, which is around 3.3 percent of the GDP. The PLI Schemes are impacting various sectors, and there is a trickle-down impact on the steel industry as well. The sector contributes approximately 2 percent to the Indian GDP and provides employment to over 2 million people.

According to the report, the 2030 vision as per National Steel Policy is 300 mt of crude steel capacity; the impact on the industry will be from the underlying themes such as a strong push towards sustainability in terms of decarbonization, circularity, energy transition, and carbon capture. Also, the carbon border adjustment mechanism in the EU will have a carbon tax on imports from any country that is higher carbon dioxide per tonne of crude steel; today, India is around 2.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide per tonne of crude steel whereas the EU is around 1.8 and the US is lower. Clearly, there is going to be a challenge as discussion on green steel is happening, and the government has already formulated the Green.

The report states that raw material availability is going to be the key challenge. In 2030, captive leases will expire, and we have to look at expediting new iron ore blocks and auctioning quickly, more steel scraps recycling centers, and policies to support exports. Capability development from a skilling and R&D point of view but also the secondary sector: today, 65-70 percent is by integral steel producers and the rest by secondary steel producers; unless the sector picks them up, the entire volume will not be additive. In 2047, the report looks at 500 mt of crude steel capacity, and per capita consumption is going to be around 220-225 kg per capita.

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