India outpaces world in steel production during Jan-April 2015

 The Dollar Business Bureau India's steel production grew by an impressive 6.7% in the first four months of 2015, the highest among major global producers, the World Steel Association (WSA) has said. According to WSA, India, now the world’s third largest producer, produced 29.97 Million tonne (Mt) steel during the January-April period of the current year compared to 28.09 Mt in the same period a year ago, outpacing the world’s average growth of 1.7%. India’s steel production grew vis-à-vis a decline of 1.3% in China, the highest producer by a wide margin and 1.7 %, globally, said the WSA. According to the report by WSA, the global production of steel has come down to 536 Mt during January-April period from 546 Mt a year ago. Going by the country-wise data, the steel production of China came down to 270 Mt from 274 MT a year earlier, production by Japan on the other hand fell by 3.7% to 35Mt and the production in the United States also dipped by 8.5 % to 26.3 MT during the period. Even though the major steel producing countries have witnessed decline in production during April, India’s steel production remained in a positive terrain, said the report, adding that the level of production by China, Japan and the United States fell by 0.7%, 6.1% and 9.8% respectively during April. The report informed that India’s steel production has been recording a reasonable growth in production since last February in contrast to the worldwide steel production trend. In a positive move ahead, India, in February 2015, surpassed the US in February in terms of the world order of steel production. China and Japan occupied the first and second positions respectively during the month. In contrast to the falling global trend, the steel demand in India is showing signs of improvement, said the industry sources, according to the reports. However, in view of the current trend persistence, it will take few more years for India to become the second largest steel making nation, added the reports. In its short-range outlook, the World Steel Association has also predicted that India’s steel usage growth rate would be the highest at 6.7% in 2015 compared to China, Japan and the US, which are expected to go down by 0.5%, 2.4% and 0.4% respectively.    

May 26, 2015 | 7:33 pm IST.