Steel demand in sectors such as infrastructure, automobiles, and engineering fell by more than 5% to 94.9 million tonnes in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021, according to a report presented to Parliament on Monday. During the 2019-20 fiscal year, the building and construction sector, as well as infrastructure, automobile, engineering and packaging, and defence, consumed 100.2 million tonnes (mt) steel, according to Steel Minister Ram Chandra Prasad Singh, who was responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha. According to information provided to the House by Singh, the building and construction sector consumed 41 million tonnes of steel in 2020-21, compared to 43.4 million tonnes in 2019-20. In the infrastructure sector, demand dropped to 23.8 mt from 25.1 mt a year ago. In 2019-20, the engineering and packaging industry consumed 20.9 metric tonnes of steel, compared to 22 metric tonnes in the previous year. The demand from the automobile industry was 8.4 mt in 2020-21, down from 8.8 mt the previous fiscal year. Demand in the defence industry fell to 0.9 mt in the 2019-20 fiscal year, down from 0.8 mt the previous year. Singh said the government is taking several steps to help steel-consuming industries meet demand. According to Singh, the government has prioritised infrastructure development through programmes such as the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), Housing for All, Jal Jeevan Mission, Bharatmala Project, Sagarmala Project, Construction of Dedicated Freight Corridor, and the UDAN initiative. The ministry has also been engaging stakeholders from a variety of industries, including housing and construction, infrastructure, urban development, railways, defence, oil and gas, rural development, and food processing, to promote steel usage and increase demand. Image Source Also read: India to break steel demand record as economy recovers