Steel majors slash exports to China

Steel majors such as Tata Steel, Essar Steel, Ispat Industries, Jindal Iron & Steel and Jindal Vijaynagar Steel have slashed their exports, in some cases by as much as 50 per cent, to China, following the recent alerts from the Chinese government.

India has overstepped its export limit of 3 per cent as specified by the World Trade Organisation and has reached 6 per cent till date.

With the firming of prices in the United States and European markets recently, domestic manufacturers are shifting focus to these regions.

Domestic steel major, Tata Steel is reducing their exports of galvanised products to China by 50 per cent, in the next quarter.

"Our company had exported about 18,000 tonne of galvanised products to China from July to September this year and we are looking at supplying around 9,000 tonne in the next quarter," said H M Nerurkar, vice president, flat products, Tata Steel.

The exports will be diverted to the US and European markets where prices have firmed up since July, bridging the gap between realisations in China and elsewhere, he added.

In the next quarter, Essar Steel is not looking at any orders from China for hot rolled coils (HR).

"We are going as per the advice of the government and will refrain from the Chinese market for the time being," said the Essar company spokesperson.

Essar Steel exported around 40,000 tonne of specialised hot-rolled products to China, about 17 per cent of their total exports, in the first six months of this year.

Meanwhile, Ispat Industries' exports to China of HR coils could dip by around 10 per cent.

According to Vinod Garg, executive director, marketing, Ispat, "The margins in Middle East and Europe, especially Iraq, have gone up considerably in the last three months and with China's import directives, we might shift our exports to these regions."

JVSL had already cut down their exports of hot-rolled coil to China drastically from around 60,000 tonne in 2002-2003, to 10,000 in the first eight months this year.

According to a Jindal Vijayanagar Steel executive, "China is not going to be our focus in the coming months, as we are getting similar prices around the world. Jisco is also following suit by diverting attention from China to the European and US markets for galvanised products."