\n\tBy Katharine Gemmell<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBHP Group and Rio Tinto Plc are looking increasingly to India as the next big growth engine for global steelmaking, underscoring how the world\u2019s biggest iron ore suppliers are preparing for a future beyond China.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tSenior commercial executives from both mining companies said rising demand and the addition of new capacity in India could help offset slowing growth in China, which has dominated global steel markets for more than two decades.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI was recently in India. All our customers are doubling capacity,\u201d Michiel Hovers, BHP\u2019s group sales and marketing officer, said during a presentation at Singapore International Ferrous Week on Tuesday. \u201cIt\u2019s happening. It\u2019s real.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIndia is emerging as the steel industry\u2019s most important growth market as China\u2019s property-led expansion fades. The government in New Delhi has set a production target of 500 million tons by 2047, slightly more than triple the 165 million tons of raw steel made last year, though still far below the 961 million tons that China produced.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile per capita steel consumption in the world\u2019s most populous nation remains far below that of China, rapid urbanization and government-backed infrastructure spending are expected to drive years of demand growth, creating an opportunity for global miners that supply iron ore and metallurgical coal.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re just in the early, early days of India\u2019s growth,\u201d Hovers said, adding that BHP was \u201cwell-positioned to support\u201d this expansion.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the coming decade, the iron ore market can expect \u201csubstantial demand growth from the Global South, especially from India and Asean\u201d countries, Rio Tinto Chief Commercial Officer Bold Baatar said earlier at the same event. This would help to offset the stagnation in Chinese demand, he said.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe global market would require about 950 million tons of new iron ore capacity, he added, not only to meet this new demand but also to counter the depletion of existing mines. Baatar argued that analysts have consistently underestimated the strength of the iron ore market, with forecasters not accounting fully for supply risks, the declining quality of iron ore deposits and the resilience of China\u2019s steel production.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Katharine Gemmell \u00a0
BHP Group and Rio Tinto Plc are looking increasingly to India as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[20718],"tags":[3224,21218,30555,22505,30561,30429,30556,30552,30558,30428,30553,30560,23633,30557,12991,30562,30554,30559],"class_list":["post-64341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rio-tinto","tag-asean","tag-bhp-group","tag-china-slowdown","tag-commodity-markets","tag-global-south","tag-global-steel-industry","tag-india-growth-story","tag-india-steel-demand","tag-infrastructure-spending","tag-iron-ore-demand","tag-iron-ore-market","tag-metallurgical-coal","tag-mining-industry","tag-raw-steel-production","tag-rio-tinto","tag-steel-capacity-expansion","tag-steelmaking","tag-urbanisation"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116761154358336666","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}