Key Points

Speaking with ANI, on the side lines of ISA Steel conclave in New Delhi, Kazuo Mike Fujisawa, Representative, Japan Iron & Steel Federation told ANI, that many Japanese steel companies are showing interest in India.

"India has high steel production growth and its population is growing so it has high steel consumption per capita," he said.

India and Japan are old trade partners when it comes to the steel industry.

"We have couple of joint ventures. JFE has major stake holding in JSW Steel...The latest joint venture between JEF and JSW was established over a year ago and expanding now. May be new ventures in near future cannot be ruled out," he added.

Japan's JFE Steel Corporation (JFE Steel) and JSW Steel Limited (JSW Steel) had established JSW JFE Electrical Steel Private Limited (subject to statutory approvals), a joint venture company for grain-oriented electrical steel in India and held a groundbreaking ceremony on February 12, 2024 at Bellary in Karnataka, India, where the new facility is proposed to be developed.

The joint venture was aimed to start full production in fiscal 2027, and to expand production in line with the growing market for grain-oriented electrical steel in India.

Similarly, Japan's Nippon Steel and India's Arcelor Mittal had a joint venture, they have plans to expand their capacity, Fujisawa said.

The ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel joint venture, known as AM/NS India, was formed in December 2019 following the acquisition of insolvent Essar Steel by the two major steel companies. It is an integrated flat steel manufacturer in India, offering a wide range of steel products for industries like automotive and infrastructure. The JV operates a large integrated steel plant in Hazira, Gujarat, and other facilities across India

However, he added, "Doing business in India is not easy we need well established domestic players to do business here in India."

On US tariff, Fujisawa said, Japan government has recently signed a document with US to reduce the tariff on the East Asian country. On Friday, US inked an executive order slashing import tariffs on Japanese cars from 27.5 per cent to 15 per cent.

It was a major thrust to the Japanese industry where earlier threat of 27.5 per cent tariff was lurking.

"Auto industry is big industry in Japan not for exports but also local supply chain as well," he said, adding that Japan exports around 1.3 million units of cars to US in a year.

The number of automobiles being shipped out from Japan to US are quite enormous.

"Japan is working hard to find middle ground. Tariff is really affecting us," Fujisawa said. The current15 per cent tariff may still impact the industry to certain extent.

Major car producing companies in Japan are Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Suzuki.

For motor finance providers, the tariff rollback reduces uncertainty around vehicle pricing, residual value forecasting, and leasing volumes.

- ANI