Lower capacity utilisation and competition from Chinese imports would dent the country's stainless steel industry, which operates at about 55 per cent capacity utilisation of the total installed capacity of 5 million tonnes per annum.

"The stainless steel sector requires Government support in the form of encouragement for exports and import restrictions on finished and semi-finished goods," said Ratan Jindal, Chairman of Jindal Steel Ltd, during a media interaction here.

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

The financial institutions have a bank exposure of about Rs. 30,000 crore to the stainless steel industry.

According to him, in recent years, stainless steel has found application in areas other than conventional utensils. "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.

"With Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for setting up 100 smart cities in the country, stainless steel consumption will get a boost. But for that policy support will also be required," he said.