ICRA Revises Domestic Steel Demand Outlook To 8% For FY24
Earlier, the ratings agency had estimated the demand to grow in the range of 6-7%.
![<div class="paragraphs"><p>A steel mill. (Photo: Unsplash)</p></div>](https://media.assettype.com/bloombergquint%2F2022-05%2F6acb0809-cf88-4c0c-823b-5679e8c43ee3%2Fsteel_unsplash.jpg?rect=0%2C0%2C5202%2C2926&auto=format%2Ccompress&w=200)
ICRA on Wednesday revised its outlook for domestic steel demand to 7-8% for the next fiscal.
Earlier, the ratings agency had estimated the demand to grow in the range of 6–7%.
"With the central government's capex outlay in FY2024, ICRA has revised upwards its steel consumption growth estimate for FY2024 to 7-8% from 6-7%," it said in a report.
In 2023–24, the capital expenditure is budgeted at Rs 10 lakh crore, which will constitute 3.3% of GDP.
In the ongoing fiscal year, domestic steel consumption growth has also remained strong, supported by the government's push for infrastructure-led economic growth.
Jayanta Roy, senior vice president and group head of corporate sector ratings at ICRA, said, "With steel consumption expected to grow in the high-single digits next year, we expect the industry's capacity utilisation rate to improve to around 80% in FY2024, despite the commissioning of some new expansion projects."
The consumption of finished steel in India was 107.20 million tonne during April-February of FY23.