India Seeks Steel raw materials From Indonesia, Argentina, Oman

• India seeks raw materials via global strategic partnerships
• Focus on lithium, iron ore, and coking coal supply security
• Gas crisis and geopolitics impact steel sector stability

India will soon start talks with Argentina, Indonesia and Oman to obtain essential raw materials for steel making, as part of a larger plan to build robust supply chains and facilitate industry growth. Such discussions are likely to be held at a world steel summit next month, which is being marketed as a major global platform for partnership and investment in the industry.

India which is currently producing the second-largest amount of crude steel in the world is still heavily importing raw materials. For example, ferronickel imports form the basis of stainless steel manufacturing in the country of which Indonesia has some of the largest nickel reserves in the world. Also, Oman is currently one of the main iron ore suppliers and at the same time, India has been increasing its mining partnerships with other countries so as to have a continuous supply during rising domestic demand.

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The main thrust of the proposed cooperation with Argentina is to obtain lithium along with other critical minerals from the government-owned NMDC. Apart from being a key raw material for steel production, these minerals will also play an important role in India's energy transition since lithium is widely used in electric vehicle batteries and energy storage.

Being one of the world's largest producers of lithium, Argentina is therefore considered a very important partner in this regard. This measure is a part of the larger goal of India to secure uninterrupted supply of essential raw materials like coking coal, cobalt, and rare earth elements as it plans to increase steel production to meet infrastructure development and industrial needs.

Meanwhile, the country is also aiming to find new export destinations besides Europe, such as Asia and the Middle East, partly due to European Union's regulatory measures like carbon tax. Nevertheless, the industry is still grappling with some problems on the ground such as the gas supply disruption caused by geopolitical developments in West Asia, which has affected even the small scale steel producers and led to fears of further supply interruptions.