India Inc’s energy efficiency has improved. Its energy security hasn’t

While cement remains constrained by process chemistry and fertilisers benefit from policy support, steel has reduced its energy intensity under competitive pressure. Facing global competition and carbon border regulations, producers have invested in waste-heat recovery, automation, higher scrap utilisation and electric arc furnace technologies to stay competitive, said PwC India’s Majumdar. As a result, steel has nearly halved its structural energy burden, with post-pandemic power and fuel costs stabilising at 3% of net sales and total expenditure, compared with pre-2020 averages of 5.5%.