Steel industry has a major role to play in the economic growth of India. With new global acquisitions by Indian steel giants, setting up of new state-of-the-art steel mills, modernisation of existing plants, improving energy efficiency and backward integration into global raw material sources, India is now on the centre of the global steel map. Consumption of steel in the construction sector, industrial applications, and transport sector has been on the rise and special steel usage in engineering industries such as power generation, petrochemicals and fertiliser industry is also growing.

India has retained its position as the 5th largest producer in 2010 and recorded a growth of 11.3 per cent as compared to 2009. India has also emerged as the largest sponge iron/direct reduced iron (DRI) producing country in the world in 2010, a rank it has held on since 2002. Sponge iron production grew at a CAGR of 11 per cent to reach a level of 20.74 million tonne (MT) in 2009-10 as compared to 14.83 MT in 2005-06. India is expected to become the second largest producer of steel in the world by 2015-16, on account of growing steel demand, rich resources base of iron ore, skilled manpower and vast experience of steel making and the huge capacity expansion planned and being executed in the steel sector.

India has recorded a growth of over 8.6 per cent, producing 6.35 MT of steel in March 2011 as against 5.85 MT in the corresponding month in 2010, according to World Steel Association (WSA). Steel exports has increased by 17.3 per cent as it reached an estimated 2.46 MT, while steel imports were at an estimated 5.36 MT, a growth of 2.8 per cent in 2010.