India’s steel output grows 8.2%, beating world average

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India’s steel production grew 8.2% – highest among the major producing nations – in March to 9 million tonne (mt), while the world’s average output grew 4.6% in March, data revealed by World Steel Association (WSA) showed. India’s steel output also outpaced others during the first three months of the current year growing by a whopping 10.7% to 25.76 mt. globally; steel production increased 5.7% during the same period to 410 mt.

With this, India is just a few tonnes away from Japan to become the second-largest steel producer in the world. Japan is now the second-largest producer of steel in the world followed by China. During the January-March period, China produced 201 mt steel.

In March, production of China grew 1.8%, same as Japan; while the production by US and Russia grew 3.4% and 1.4%, respectively. However, growth in production was better in China, US and Russia during the January-March period at 4.6%, 3.8% and 4.1%, respectively. Germany produced 3.9 mt steel in March, Italy at 2.2 mt and France 1.3 mt. Turkey’s steel production for March this year was 3.1 mt, up 14% over the same month last year. Brazil’s crude steel production during the month was higher by 13.7% at 2.9 mt. According to WSA, during the January-March period of the current year, Asia produced 280.6 mt steel, an increase of 5.4% over the first quarter of 2016.

The European Union produced 42.5 mt, up by 3.8%, and North America’s output was 7.1% more compared to the first three months of the last fiscal year.

Source: Financial Express