India’s steel production up 6.7 % in Jan-April, outpaces China

In a staunch display of country’s economic growth potential, India‘s steel production grew by an impressive 6.7 per cent in the January-April period of 2015, outpacing China with a significant margin of 1.7 percent. India was the only country in the top four steel producers, China, Japan and USA being the others, to have shown a positive growth in the sector.

There has been a constant decline in the steel production globally, mainly due to falling output in China, which accounts for nearly half of the global steel production. According to the World Steel Association (WSA), India recorded the highest production growth during January-February 2015, at 7.6 percent (the global average was 0.6 percent), and on an average it grew by 6.7 percent during the first four-month period.

India also recorded a marginal growth on the total production of steel from the first quarter last year. India is currently the third largest producer of steel in the world and produced 29.97 MT during the January-April 2015, compared to 28.09 MT during the same period last year.

The top three countries (China, USA, Japan) saw a major decline in their total steel output from last year. China’s total production fell from 274 MT last year to 270 MT in 2015. Japan’s total output fell by 3.7 percent to total 35 MT in the same period, and the production in the US also came down by 8.5 percent to total 26.3 MT during the period. As a result, global production also dipped to 536 MT in the fist four months from 546 MT last year.

Among the European nations, Germany produced 3.7 MT, Turkey 2.6 MT, Italy 2 MT, France 1.4 MT and Spain 1.2 MT. Russia’s production saw a marginal growth of 0.7 percent increase, recording total 5.8 MT over the same period.

In the coming month, India is likely to retain its current position in the steel production, whereas the world’s other lading countries are heading towards a stagnation stage in terms of their total output.

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