Mumbai: The Indian stainless steel industry is looking ahead to a 10 per cent growth this year, with the Railways keen on the increased use of the material for its rolling stock.
The Railways is expected to need over 70,000 tonnes of stainless steel this fiscal for building coaches and wagons, where per tonne cost of high grade material could be in the range of Rs 95,000.
The total industry production should cross 1.8 million tonnes this year and 5-8 per cent of this should go towards serving the demand of the railways, said Mr N.C. Mathur, Director, Jindal Stainless, and President of Indian Stainless Steel Development Association. The industry production last year was close to 1.6 million tonnes.
The Railways plans to make about 10,000-15,000 wagons, besides 5,000 wagons that are slotted for refurbishment – where the flooring would remain and the shell replaced with stainless steel. Each wagon would need about seven tonnes of stainless steel, he said.
In addition, 9,000 new wagons of various sizes are expected to roll out this year. The Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, is already making 1,500 coaches for the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation.
New Factories
The Railways are also setting up factories to manufacture stainless steel coaches at Rai Bareilly and Palghat.
The Rai Bareilly facility is expected to begin production in 2010 and make 1,200 units in the first year.
The Palghat unit, where production is expected to start in 2012, will make 600 coaches in the first year. Existing rail coach making units are Kapurthala, Punjab, and Chennai.
Metro roofing
This apart, stainless steel is increasing being used for roofing of all metro stations. Most cities have opted to go in for stainless steel bus shelters as well.
For this, bus transport corporations have chosen the BOT (build-operate-and-transfer) route to establish the passenger amenity. Mumbai has 1,500 such shelters with Delhi and Chennai following the trend with about 300 each.
Decorative uses
Architects too have found increasing use for stainless steel in decorative and other facilities, while the hospitality segment prefer it for reasons of hygiene and low maintenance.
Mr Mathur said stainless steel prices were down compared to 2007, where the top-end of the current price band of Rs 80,000 to Rs 1.80 lakh a tonne was at Rs 2.6 lakh.
Global nickel prices plummeted from $48,000 a tonne in April 2007 to $18,500 a tonne in the second quarter of the current fiscal.
Steel LPG cylinders
The industry is also pitching for stainless steel made LPG cylinders after obtaining the Bureau of Indian Standards certification.
However, kitchen utensils continue to be the prime driver of the industry demand, with 75 per cent of the total production servicing the demand. - IBEF
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