Steel consumption up 3.7% in July

Kolkata, Aug 19 (IANS) India's steel consumption in July rose by 3.7 per cent to 6.905 million tonnes (mt) over corresponding month last year and exports in the last month grew by 64 per cent, the Steel Ministry's latest report said on Saturday.

"Overall consumption in July at 6.905 mt was down by 4.2 per cent over June 2017 but was up by 3.7 per cent over July 2016," the report of the ministry's Joint Plant Committee (JPC) said.

India's consumption of total finished steel at 27.911 mt saw a growth of 4.4 per cent in April-July period over same period of last year, under the influence of rising production for sale and imports.

Exports of total finished steel increased by 65.5 per cent to 2.807 mt in April-July 2017 over same period of last year and overall exports at 0.77 mt in July only was up by 19 per cent over the previous month but grew by 64 per cent over year-ago month.

However, import of total finished steel at 2.505 mt in the first four months of the current fiscal grew by 4.7 per cent over same period of last year.

"Overall imports in July 2017 at 0.798 mt was up by 24 per cent over June 2017 and was up by 42.2 per cent over July 2016," the report said.

India was a net importer of total finished steel in July 2017 and maintained its net exporter status in the first four months of the current fiscal.

According to the provisional data released by the JPC, production for sale of total finished steel in July was at 8.256 mt, up by 9 per cent over year-ago month.

"Production for sale of total finished steel at 34.430 mt, registered a growth of 6.9 per cent during April-July 2017 over the same period last year," the report said.

During April-July, the ISP (Integrated Steel Plant) producers produced 20 mt, which was a growth of 14 per cent while production for the other producers was up by 0.2 per cent.