India's steel consumption up 1.4% in Apr-Dec

The country had consumed 54.507 MT of steel during the corresponding period of the last fiscal

India's steel consumption grew by just 1.4% during the April-December period of current fiscal at 55.24 million tonnes, impacted by economic slowdown.

The country, the fourth largest steel maker in the world, had consumed 54.507 MT of steel during the corresponding period of the last fiscal, Joint Plant Committee (JPC), a unit of the Steel Ministry, said in a report.

"The slow year-on-year cumulative growth numbers appear to reflect the lingering effect of the economic slowdown and is further depressed by declining growth rate in production for sale in December 2014 as compared to same period of last year," JPC said.

Imports went up significantly to 6.51 MT, up 58.1% over the corresponding period last year. Exports, on the other hand, declined by 6.6% to 4.06 MT during the period.

Production of steel grew by 1.5% to 65.142 MT.

During April-December period, main producers such as Tata Steel, SAIl and RINL produced 33.981 MT, clocking a growth of 2% compared to the same period of last year. The rest was the contribution of the other producers such as Essar Steel, JSW Steel and JSPL.

Domestic consumption of steel in December stood at 6.604 MT, a 1.5% rise over the same month last year. Imports of 0.955 MT in the month were 142% rise over December 2013.