Apr-Jan steel consumption up 7.9%

Steel consumption rose 7.9 per cent to 45.93 million tonne during April-January in the current financial year over the same period a year ago on the back of steady rise in demand from sectors including automobile, white goods and construction.

Steel consumption during the corresponding period a year earlier stood at 42.59 million tonne.

However, domestic steel production rose only 3.3 per cent during the 10 months ended January 2010 and crossed the consumption pattern at 48.81 million tonne over 47.27 million tonnes in the comparable period last year, according to provisional data of the Steel Ministry.

Meanwhile, imports also surged 18.5 per cent to 5.9 million tonnes during the period, thereby increasing the availability of the commodity in the market and putting pressure on domestic prices.

But, exports continued to slide and fell 34.1 per cent to 2.39 million tonne during the reporting period, reminiscent of the fact that the western market is still to recover from the economic crisis of 2008-09.

Leading steel producers like Tata Steel and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam reported 12.4 per cent growth to 4.17 million tonne and 7.6 per cent increase to 2.4 million tonne, respectively, during April-January over the same period previous fiscal.

Production of SAIL, however, declined 6.1 per cent to 7.83 million tonne against 8.34 million tonne in the April-January period previous fiscal.

Moreover, in January alone the country saw steel output rise 4 per cent to 4.96 million tonne over the year-ago period. But SAIL saw output declining 10 per cent at 7.83 lakh tonne in the month against production of 8.70 lakh tonne during the same month a year ago.

However, RINL and Tata Steel saw their January production surging by 67.7 per cent to 2.75 lakh tonnes and 15.4 per cent to 4.65 lakh tonnes, respectively over the corresponding period a year ago.

Steel consumption in January increased by 8.7 per cent to 4.94 million tonne over the same month in 2009.

In January, imports surged 34.2 million tonnes to 7.26 lakh tonne against 5.41 lakh tonne in the same period a year ago. Steel exports dipped by 15.2 per cent to 2.96 lakh tonne from about 3.49 lakh tonne shipped in January 2009.