Steel consumption rises by 5.2% in first quarter

Steel consumption has risen 5.2 per cent during the first quarter, showing signs of improvement in demand for the commodity in the economy, the Steel Ministry said in a statement today.

"Consumption of finished steel went up by 5.2 percent from 12.2 million tonnes during the first quarter of Financial Year '09 to 12.83 million tonnes during April-June this year," the Ministry said today.

Meanwhile, finished steel production went up by 3.4 per cent to 13.98 million tonnes during April-June 2009 as compared to 13.53 million tonnes during the same period last year.

However, the export of steel took a hit and fell sharply by 37.8 per cent in the period to 0.642 million tonnes from 1.032 million tonnes in the year-ago quarter.

Imports also fell 5.3 per cent from 1.493 million tonnes to 1.414 million tonnes during the period.

The production of saleable steel of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) went up by 3.73 per cent to 30.6 lakh tonnes in the three months, compared to 29.5 lakh tonnes during April-June 2008.

Finished steel production of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) went up by 2.09 per cent from 6.71 lakh tonnes to 6.85 lakh tonnes, the statement said.

In June 2009, the production of saleable steel by SAIL rose by 7.22 per cent to 10.4 lakh tonnes against 9.7 lakh tonnes, and that of RINL went up by 21.72 per cent to 2.41 lakh tonnes from 1.98 lakh tonnes.

During the period up to June 2009, SAIL’s volume of sales rose by 5.58 per cent (28.4 lakh tonnes against 26.9 lakh tonnes) but RINL's declined by 4.33 per cent (5.74 lakh tonnes against 6 lakh tonnes).