The Indian Steel Association (ISA), which represents major public and private sector steel companies, has forecast that steel demand would contract 7.7 per cent in 2020 in the wake of measures taken to contain the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.
This is in sharp contrast to the earlier projection of 5.1 per cent growth made just a couple of months back, in February. ISA said that its earlier estimate was that steel demand would touch Rs 106.7 million tonnes. The estimated actual in 2019 was Rs 101.5 million tonnes.
“We have now revised the steel demand forecast to Rs 93.7 million tonnes. In other words, we estimate that the spread of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown will lead to steel demand declining by Rs 13 million tonnes or by 12.2 percent from a business as usual scenario,” the association said in a statement.
ISA has cautioned that its demand forecast was based on three implicit assumptions -the lockdown will not be extended beyond 40 days that the government will come up with further fiscal stimulus, boosting demand and helping frontend stalled projects once the lockdown ends and that the disruptions and challenges arising out of the lockdown will be overcome by early June 2020.