India’s imports of finished steel from China sank 69.18% year over year to about 94,000 mt in February, from 305,000 mt in February 2024, according to calculations by Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, based on data from the Joint Plant Committee.

Due to the lower February inflows, India’s finished steel imports from China from April 2024 to February 2025 fell 5.3% year over year to 2.41 million mt. India’s fiscal year runs from April to March.

As a result, the gap in overall inflows between China and leading supplier South Korea widened to about 239,900 mt over April-February, compared with 125,200 mt in April-January.

South Korea retained its position as the leading supplier of finished steel to India for April-February with 2.65 million mt of inflows, up 7.1% year over year, while China was in second place.

Over April-January, South Korea overtook China to become the leading supplier of finished steel to India.

Japan ranked third, contributing 1.92 million mt to India’s imports over April-February, up 69.7% from the previous year.

The switch in China’s and South Korea’s positions was due to the expiry of the Bureau of Indian Standards certification for overseas steel mills in November, which caused some Chinese mills to reduce hot-rolled coil exports to India.