India's steel exports register three-fold increase in January

India's steel exports registered a three-fold increase to 0.889 million tonnes (MT) in January this year, compared to the year-ago month.

The massive jump in exports comes amid government providing extensive support to the domestic steel industry by way of various trade remedial measures including anti-dumping.

The country shipped out 5.865 mt in the first 10 months of the ongoing financial year, registering an increase of 71 per cent.

"Exports in January, 2017 (0.889 mt) was up 224 per cent over January 2016 and was up by 19 per cent over December 2016," according to Joint Plant Committee data.

The country's steel export in January 2016 was 0.274 mt, the data further revealed.

"Export of total finished steel was up by 71.1 per cent in April-January 2016-17 (5.865 mt) over the same period of last year," the data showed.

Import of total finished steel declined by 37.8 per cent to 6.097 mt in April-January 2016-17 over the same period of last fiscal.

Imports in January 2017 (0.602 mt) was down by 41.7 per cent over January 2016 and by 21 per cent over December 2016.

India's consumption of total finished steel saw a growth of 3.5 per cent in April-January 2016-17 at 68.892 mt over same period of FY'16.

During April-January 2016-17, crude steel production was 80.716 mt, registering a growth of 9 per cent over the same period of last fiscal.

Overall crude steel production in January 2017 stood at 8.367 mt which was up by 11.5 per cent over January 2016 but declined by 0.4 per cent over December 2016.

"SAIL, RINL, TSL (Tata Steel Ltd), Essar, JSWL (JSW Steel Lt) & JSPL together produced 45.18 mt during April-January 2016-17, which was a growth of 16.4 per cent compared to same period of last year," the data said.

During April-January FY'17, hot metal production was at 53.598 mt, a growth of 10.5 per cent over the same period of last year.