Indian pellet industry's capacity utilisation rates fall 10% since FY'21

Published: Dec 2, 2025 13:48

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The Indian pellet industry has seen a steady decline in production capacity utilisation rates between FY'21 and 7MFY'26, with a cumulative drop of 10% in capacity utilisation rate

In the last five years, capacity utilisation rates were at their healthiest at 76% in FY'21, which then fell to a low of 63% in FY'23. Since then, there has been a minor recovery, with capacity utilisation at 67% in FY'24, 66% in FY'25, and 68% in 7MFY'26 (April-October 2025), but the peak of FY'21 remains out of reach.

This trend seems to be an anomaly, given that India's steel production is on the rise and the consumption of sponge iron has also jumped (by 41% between 2021 and 2024). Notably, some major blast furnace-based producers have also lifted the share of pellets in their raw material mix to 40-50% from 20% previously.

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