Steel Sector
Indian steel companies need to up game on product quality, value, says Tata Steel official
This story was originally published at 13:55 IST on 9 September 2025
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NEW DELHI - The narrative for the Indian steel industry should be to grow not only in terms of quantity but also on quality, value, innovation, and higher grades of finished steel products, Ashwani Kumar Lal, Chief Steel Exports, Flat Products, at Tata Steel Ltd. told Informist on the sidelines of a steel industry conclave Tuesday. The domestic steel industry is not up the ladder in terms of the quality and steel grades that user industries want, he said.
"We are more volume centric," Lal said at the event organised here by the Indian Steel Association. This cannot be achieved by curbing imports of higher grades of steel, according to the Tata Steel official. "It's about us (steel industry) catching up and getting the user industries to localise," Lal said.
The user industries are importing because the domestic industry is not able to cater to them, he said. The steel user industries have already gone through a localisation journey over the decades, but more distance needs to be covered, according to Lal.
As the focus shifts to quality and value, the domestic steel industry will need to invest more in research and development, Lal said. A lot of capital expenditure by the industry players is on capacity and volumes but they need to put money in R&D as well, he said.
It is very easy to buy technology but it is very costly, the official said. "So, it is good for us (domestic steel industry) to get the R&D thing up," he said. A 10-year goal of the domestic steel makers should be to have patents in technology, according to Lal. It should not be like the "jugaad" innovations that we have currently, but steel makers should have high-level patents, he said, adding applying for strong patents takes time, he said.
In response to a query on impact on exports due to high US tariffs, Lal said Indian steel producers don't export steel to the US. But the domestic producers of value-added steel products "are not having a good time," he said. The US market is among the best for exports and the first choice of market for these producers, he said.
At 1352 IST, shares of Tata Steel were almost flat at INR 168.99 on the National Stock Exchange. End
IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT
Reported by Rajesh Gajra
Edited by Vandana Hingorani
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