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Impacted by economic slowdown, India's steel consumption grew by merely 0.4% to 48.291 million tonne during the April-November period of the current fiscal.
According to Joint Plant Committee (JPC), a body under the Steel Ministry, a sharp decline in imports also led to the fall in consumption.
The consumption of finished steel, a key indicator of the health of an economy, was at 48.09 MT in the first eight months of the last fiscal, 2012-13.
The Indian economy grew by 4.8% during the July- September quarter. It had hit a decadal low of 5% in 2012-13 on account of poor performance in the farm, manufacturing and mining sectors.
"India's real consumption of total finished steel was impacted by slowdown in domestic economy and a sharp decline (28.3%) in imports during this period which the 5.3% rise in production for sale could not offset but on hindsight, the same appears to have checked real consumption growth," JPC said.
Production for sale of total finished steel at 53.398 MT, registered a growth of 5.3% during April-November, encouraged by a 10.7% growth in the case of main producers. India is the world's fourth largest steel maker.
Import of total finished steel showed downward trend, declining by 28.3% year-on-year in April-November at 3.656 MT, JPC said.
It was impacted by factors like slowdown in the domestic economy, exchange rate volatility, relative prices, global downswing and bilateral agreements among others, it added.
Export of finished steel was up 6.9% during the period at 3.53 MT driven by different economic conditions, impact of global downswing and depressed domestic demand.
"Real consumption of total finished steel grew by 0.6% in November 2013 at 5.942 MT, discouraged by a moderate 4.3% growth in production for sale, a 60% fall in imports and a 26.6% rise in exports," JPC said.
