The country's steel consumption grew by only 3.9% in the first nine months of the current fiscal to 54.8 million tonnes (MT) due to subdued demand from the end-users such as construction and automobiles.
Finished steel consumption, a key pointer to the health of any country's economy, stood at 52.7 MT in April-December period of the last fiscal, a Steel Ministry data showed.
"The poor growth of steel consumption is because of the subdued demand from the end-users and if we go by projections by various sectors, it is not going to dramatically go up in the remaining period of the current fiscal," a steel industry official said.
However, he added that steel consumption generally gains momentum following the festival season in October and reaches its peak during the January-March quarter when construction activity gains pace and sales of consumer durables pick up.
Earlier this month, auto industry body SIAM had revised car sales projection for the fourth time in the current fiscal to 0-1%, down from the first ambitious estimation of up to 12%.
Construction and infrastructure sectors, which consume most of the steel in India, have also a poor run so far in the current fiscal, but a possible rate cut by the apex bank in the ensuing policy review may revive the sectors.
India's steel consumption grew by nearly 7% in 2011-12 to 73.42 MT from 68.62 MT in the previous fiscal.
The Ministry data also reveal that production of finished steel during the April-December period of the current fiscal grew by 3.3% to 56.5 million tonnes (MT) from 54.7 MT a year ago.
Exports grew by 22.1% to 3.7 MT from 3.04 MT a year earlier.
Imports also increased by 15.5% to 5.76 MT from 4.98 MT during the April-December period of the last fiscal, the data showed.
India had consumed 70.92 MT finished steel during the entire 2011-12 fiscal. It had produced 73.42 MT, imported 6.83 MT and exported 4.04 MT during the year.