WILL OF STEEL

Vinay Shroff, Chief Marketing Officer, JSW Steel, has his hands full.

The conglomerate is growing leaps and bounds and his role is becoming more and more interesting. With increased capacity and product portfolio, the road ahead is full of excitement as the company ventures into new markets segments and innovative solutions.

India has seen a strong demand for steel. What is the outlook? Considering that large number of infrastructure projects are ongoing, what does it mean for you?

India is currently in a nation-building phase. If you look globally, whether it is Japan, Germany, South Korea or China, they have been through their phase of development journey. In India, the elasticity of steel consumption is one to two times the real GDP growth. This phase typically lasts for one to two decades. India’s steel demand grew by 13.3% in FY2023 and has been growing by 14% in FY24. This represents almost twice the elasticity to the real GDP growth.

Another important matrix that we track is per capita steel consumption. History has shown that almost 100 kgs per capita has been an inflection point as far as steel demand is concerned. With demand reaching 100 kgs per capita, this trend will stay for a long period. India was at 87 kgs per capita in FY23 and will come close to 100 kgs in FY24.