India's small steelmakers face production cuts amid LNG shortages due to Iran conflict

FILE PHOTO: A worker welds a steel bar at a steel processing production line of a factory in Mandi Gobindgarh, in the northern state of Punjab, India, August 14, 2025. About six per cent of India's steel output uses gas-based direct reduced iron, or DRI, while roughly 50 per cent depends on coal-fired blast furnaces. - Reuters

NEW DELHI: Scores of small Indian steel producers have warned of production cuts as the escalating Middle East conflict disrupts gas supplies to the world's biggest producer of the alloy after China, industry officials said.

"We are looking at a 50 per cent production cut as of now and a complete halt ahead, if supplies don't improve within a week," Yogesh Kanakiya, director at Triveni Iron and Steel Industries, told Reuters.