According to industry body ISSDA, corrosion in projects across all industries results in losses of around USD 110 billion annually in India. Rajamani Krishnamurti, president of the Indian Stainless Steel Development Association (ISSDA), stated that while India strives to reach its USD 5 trillion economic targets, tackling problems like corrosion in projects should be a top priority.
The ISSDA is the leading organisation in India for the stainless steel industry. It collaborates with other stakeholders and the government to identify industry concerns and provide solutions.
“Corrosion is a serious issue. Corrosion leads to various other problems that weaken the infrastructure structures. As a result, many projects like a road over bridges, foot over bridges at railway stations, real estate projects fail to complete their estimated life cycle,” he said. “If you calculate, losses worth USD 110 billion are happening every year in India,” Krishnamurti said at the first India Stainless Steel Expo (ISSE).
Stainless steel, he claimed, is more ductile, corrosion-free, maintenance-free, aesthetically pleasing, and has a longer lifespan than carbon steel.
In India, per capita stainless steel consumption is 2.8 kilogramme, compared to a global average of 6 kg. India has a stainless steel installed capacity of 6.5 million tonnes (MT). The nation generated 4 MT of stainless steel in 2022–2023.
He brought up the problem of dumping in India and said the industry wants the government to take action like applying countervailing duty (CVD) or antidumping duty (ADD) on such goods to stop the growing imports.
“It has been witnessed that the industry could not utilise its installed capacity at an optimum level due to huge dumping from China at predatory pricing, which has eaten up over 33 per cent of domestic demand,” Krishnamurti further said.
