Japan Special Steel Makers Rush to India Market

Japanese special steel makers accelerate to seek Indian business opportunity. Daido Steel entered into technical partnership with Indian special steel major, Sunflag Iron & Steel. Mitsubishi Steel Mfg. launches 2 joint ventures with Stump & Schuele & Somappa Springs (SSSS) in first half of 2012. Sanyo Special Steel launches electric furnace special steel joint venture with Mitsui & Co. and Mahindra Ugine Steel (MUSCO) of Mahindra and Mahindra group. Japanese special steel makers try to seek growth opportunity in India when Japanese automakers and other steel users shift the operation to offshore plants.

Indian special steel demand is expected to increase to annual 6 million tonnes by 2015, which is around 1.5 times of current volume, due to development of infrastructure and growth of automakers and manufacturers. The special steel demand increased by annualized 10% from 2005 to 2010. Automobile represented around 50% of the special steel demand.

Daido Steel entered into partnership with Sunflag Iron & Steel, which is the first technical partnership with Indian maker for Japanese special steel maker. Daido Steel provides consulting service in capital expenditure and quality but Daido Steel eyes future local production.

Mitsubishi Steel Mfg. has technical partnership with SSSS. They launch joint ventures to make coil spring and stabilizer for automobile and thick coil for construction machinery. Mitsubishi Steel Mfg. tries to serve automakers including transplants from Japan, Europe and USA while the firm provides the products for construction machinery in India.

Sanyo Special Steel launches the first offshore integrated plant. MUSCO has annual 120,000 tonnes of output capacity and has 3-4% market share in India. Sanyo Special Steel provides technical support for the new company to serve local users including Japanese transplants.