Data from Joint Plant Committee (JPC), an arm of the union steel ministry, shows that the country’s steel consumption grew 3.5 percent to 5.6 million tonne (mn t) in April 2013 from 5.4 mn t in the same month.
Steel consumption in April 2013 is slightly more than the average 3.3 percent growth in 2012-13. The Indian economy consumed 73.3 mn t steel in the previous fiscal compared to 71 mn t in 2011-12.
Steel firms in India produced 6.4 mn t of the alloy in April, which is 4.5 percent higher than 6.1 mn t in the year-ago month.
Among main producers, both state-owned steel producers SAIL and RINL clocked negative growth during the month.
During the month, state-run SAIL witnessed 0.8 percent contraction in steel output to around 820,000 tonne. The steel output in RINL dipped by 2.1 percent to around 230,000 tonne. Tata Steel, on the other hand, reported a significant 38.2 percent growth in production in April to about 600,000 tonne.
Among other steel makers, JSW Steel and Essar Steel produced 2 mn t in the month under review, clocking 6.6 percent growth over the same month last fiscal.
While India imported 47.8 percent less steel at about 350,000 tonne in April, it exported 44.4 percent more of the metal at around 450,000 tonne.
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