Steel output in India seen more than double by 2012

By Anna Stablum

MONTE CARLO, June 2 (Reuters) - Steel production in India is forecast more than doubling to 120 million tonnes by 2012, rising to 280 million tonnes by 2025, a conference heard on Monday.

This would be up from around 55 to 56 million tonnes in 2008, said the Bureau of International Recycling's (BIR) ambassador to India, Ikbal Nathani at Nathani Group of Companies.

"Current consumption of steel is only 56 kilograms per person, which is very low," Nathani said.

But whereas global steel billet prices have nearly doubled since the start of the year and are expected to go higher, the situation in India was slightly different, he said.

In India, steel mills have agreed to reduce the price by around $150 per tonne for the next few months to help the government battle inflation.

"Inflation in India has been at around 4 percent for the last one and a half years but it has gone to 8.1 percent last week ... inflation is causing multiple problems to the government," Nathani said.

He said the government had taken several steps to try to reduce inflation.

"The 5 percent import duty on scrap was made zero," he said.