Steel used to be extremely expensive to make, and it was mainly utilized in small, high-value objects like knives, swords, and armor 

In India,

The Bengal Iron Works was created in 1870 in Kulti, Bengal, and commenced production in 1874. Dorabji Tata started the Tata Iron and Steel Company(TISCO) in 1907 as part of his father's conglomerate. It was the largest steel factory in the British Empire by 1939. In 1951, the corporation embarked on a massive refurbishment and expansion initiative.

Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru, a socialist, thought that maximizing steel output was necessary for India's technological development. In the 1950s, he created Hindustan Steel Limited (HSL), a government-owned corporation, and set up three steel factories.

In the twenty-firstcentury, India's steel industry began to grow into Europe. Tata Steel of India made a successful $11.3 billion offer to buy European steelmaker Corus Group in January 2007. Mittal Steel (headquartered in London but with Indian management) joined with Arcelor in 2006 after a $34.3 billion acquisition bid to form ArcelorMittal (based in Luxembourg City), the world's largest steelmaker with 10% of global output.