Business Line reported that Lower capacity utilisation and competition from Chinese imports would dent India's stainless steel industry, which operates at about 55% capacity utilisation of the total installed capacity of 5 million tonnes per annum.

Mr Ratan Jindal chairman of Jindal Steel Ltd said that "The stainless steel sector requires Government support in the form of encouragement for exports and import restrictions on finished and semi-finished goods."

Raising the issue of increasing dependence on imports and under-utilisation of production capacities, Mr Jindal said that "Our imports of stainless steel have doubled in the past one year. Whereas our capacity utilisation is about 55%."

He said that in recent years, stainless steel has found application in areas other than conventional utensils. He added that "Stainless steel now finds application in consumer durables such as washing machines, fridges, ovens, and the entire kitchen. What we are aiming at is to increase India's per capita stainless steel consumption from 1.6 kg per annum to that of some of the developed nations."

Europe has an average per capita stainless steel consumption of about 10 kg, while China consumes about 6 kg. Taiwan has among the highest stainless steel consumption levels of about 15 kg.