The reopening of China’s economy, which accounts for almost a fifth of the world’s GDP, would open up a plethora of opportunities for the Indian steel sector. With the recovery expected to be supported by consumption, Indian steel manufacturers would be able to replace China in providing the product to other nations.

While China would also become a market, Indian manufacturers would also scale up production to meet increasing demand. Further, a fall in energy prices — including coal — would also add to Indian firms’ gains.

China would be looking at consumption-led recovery rather than investment-led growth, which indicates that large investments would not be made in infrastructure development. It would look at increasing domestic consumption, and in a consumption-led economy, the demand for the commodity is not as high as that in the past cycles.