Steel Standoff: Global Giant Challenges India's Protectionist Policies

Alarm bells have been sounded by ArcelorMittal's joint venture in India over the cuts that would be forced in steel production and the delays in further expansion plans owing to India's low-ash metallurgical coke import restrictions. The company warned that it may have to halt blast furnace operations by June 2025 or scale back production as early as April 2025. In a letter to India's Commerce Minister, ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India asked for added allocations from Poland and Japan to keep operations going. The restrictions were put into effect in December to support domestic coke producers, and foreign-owned steel manufacturers worry that it will disrupt their businesses. In all this, ArcelorMittal-Nippon's plans to invest up to $9 billion in its Kalinganagar plant to quadruple its steel capacity in India by 2035 may suffer the most. 

 

Source: Reuters