India has reported a 38 per cent surge in steel imports to 8.319 million tonnes.
Thus, it becomes a net importer of the commodity during 2023-24 financial year.
India had imported 6.022 million tonnes (MnT) of finished steel during the preceding 2022-23 fiscal.
The outbound shipment of steel rose by 11.50 per cent to 7.48 MnT in the last fiscal from 6.71 MnT a year ago.
The country's crude steel output also rose by 12.40 per cent to 138.48 MnT from 123.19 MnT in 2022-23.
The consumption of finished steel stood at 135.95 MnT, up 13.40 per cent over 119.89 MnT in the year-ago period.
Under the National Steel Policy, India aims to scale up its annual steel production capacity to 300 million tonnes by 2030, and per capita steel consumption to 160 kg.