Slower growth in five of the six core sector constituents pulled down the overall growth rate in the index of six infrastructure industries to 5.3% in June 2007, as against 7.7% in the year-ago period. This is the slowest growth rate for the sector in the past one year.Production of crude petroleum, which has a share of 4.17% in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), registered a negative growth of 1.8% in June 2007 as against 1.2% during the same month of the previous year. According to data released by the commerce and industry ministry today, production of crude oil for the month stood at 2,774 thousand tonne.Data also showed that growth in crude oil production has been slowing since December 2006.Production of petroleum refinery products, having a share of 2% in the IIP, registered a growth of 9.8% in June 2007 against 10.5% in the year ago period. Output from oil refineries during the month stood at 12,006 thousand tonne against 10,094 thousand tonne in the same month of the previous year.Production of cement during June this year stood at 14,160 thousand tonne, which is a growth of 5.6% against 11.7% in the same month of the previous year. The commerce and industry ministry has permitted MMTCto import the commodity without the standard mark of the Bureau of Indian Standards to ease prices in the domestic market.According to the ministry, cement prices have increased by nearly 45% between January 2006 and July 2007. MMTC will now be able to import cement from manufacturers abroad, which have applied to Bureau of Indian Standards.Growth in production of coal during the month, which has a share of 3.22% in the IIP, dipped to 1.3% against 11.8% in the corresponding month of the previous year. Coal production during June this year stood at 32.34 million tonne.Growth in production of finished (carbon) steel in June this year stood at 5.6% against 10.2% in the corresponding month of the previous year. During the month under consideration, the country produced 3,973 thousand tonne of steel.The only infrastructure sector constituent which showed a healthy growth during June was electricity, in which a growth of 6.8% was recorded against 4.9% in the same month of the previous year. Total generation of electricity in June this year stood at 57,078 megawatt.
