In conversation with Vijay Sharma, Director (Corporate Affairs) Jindal Stainless, as he expounds on the current state of the global stainless steel industry.
In an exclusive interview with Stainless Today, Vijay Sharma, Director (Corporate Affairs) Jindal Stainless, shares expert insights on key trends, challenges and India’s standing in the stainless steel industry. He specifically focuses on Industry 4.0 and digitalisation, and what measures are necessary to position India among the top exporters of stainless steel.
Here are excerpts from the interview:
Current state of global stainless steel industry
“Stainless steel is perhaps the only metal that has got very high corrosion resistance strength. Interestingly, at the world level it is about 3 to 3.5 percent by volume of steel, and at India level, too, it is the same, but in the value chain it has a very high positioning. Value-wise it can be around 10 to 15 percent of steel depending on the applications, depending on the series, depending on the grades.
Like other metals, this metal also is aligned with and is proportional to the GDP growth. It can be a multiplier of one time to even two times and in India we are growing better than the world. If I see the last 40 years growth rate of five competing metals including stainless steel, carbon steel, aluminium, zinc and copper, the average growth rate worldwide is about 2.5 percent wherein within this the stainless steel is 5.5 percent.
So, worldwide also it is growing better. In India for the last 10 years or so, despite the hiccup of COVID, it has grown by 8 to 9 percent. The world is changing a lot. The word globalisation is getting converted into nationalisation, thanks to China. I am not talking about only stainless steel, but any product category in the world because of the surplus capacities, China is disturbing the market.
The growth of stainless steel is linked with the GDP, so practically in all the applications it is growing well. Almost 25 years back, 80 per cent of the stainless steel consumption was primarily into the kitchenware and 20 per cent was others. Today, the latter has gone up to 65 per cent.”
Globalisation vis-à-vis nationalisation
“Like I said, globalisation is getting converted into nationalisation. Every country is trying to give the level playing field to their manufacturers. It is not limited only to stainless steel. My message to the exporters of India is try to export real value addition, try to institute the monitoring mechanism, so that you are aware that you are not dumping because the developed economies like Europe and USA, if they initiate any trade remedial actions on any Indian producer, this could be punitive resource consuming and also very expensive. But if you are able to give good solutions to your customer abroad, which includes even the documentation, then such risks can be mitigated.
We don’t try to disturb the international market; we try to be their solution providers.”
Achieving net zero goals
“We are all aware about the Honourable Prime Minister’s vision of making the country carbon neutral by 2070. Jindal Stainless, a socially responsible corporate, is focusing a lot on ESG including the carbon neutrality. In fact, we have already made a roadmap a vision for our organisation to be net zero by 2050 20 years ahead of the national target and by 2035 our carbon footprint will be reduced to half.
We have already committed that any increment power requirement will be only for the renewable sources and as an initial stage we have already committed 700 crore rupees towards these initiatives. We were the first industry company to have a pilot project to produce green hydrogen. We want to increase such activities. We are also using EV and solar power on the water storage area, so this is our commitment that we want to be ahead of the curve.”
Working together
“There are certain challenges, so for the larger interest of the industry, we should be together under our associations and work together in all the areas that are for the common interest, whether it is digitalisation or scaling up. There should be a category revolution, so that people really get passionate and excited to use stainless steel. We should breathe stainless steel, we should see stainless steel in our everyday life.
We are number one in the country, we have the most versatile manufacturing range, we are omnipresent in all the applications, we are seen as the first choice of all the customers for all their stainless steel requirements and solutions. We aim to continuously provide the best-in-class service to the customer and to continuously work on the overall development of the entire stainless steel ecosystem.”
Watch the full video:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO8ArCj2V9g&t=2s
