Steady demand from automobile and consumer durables sectors saw steel consumption rising 12.2 per cent to 14.9 million tonne during the April-June quarter over the same period last fiscal.
Consumption was at 13.30 million tonne in the year-ago period, according to the provisional data released by the Steel Ministry. However, domestic production rose only by 4 per cent to 15.08mt in the reporting period as against 14.50 mt in the year-ago period.
Even though domestic production surpassed consumption, the April-June period saw imports rising by a whopping 74.9 per cent to 2.6mt as against the year-ago period, increasing domestic availability and putting pressure on local prices.
Steel exports continued to decline and went down by 15.1 percent in the reporting period to 6.25 lakh tonne in the reporting quarter.
Tata Steel reported 4.3 per cent growth in volume to 1.26 million tonne. Public sector companies like SAIL and RINL saw their output going down by 3 and 2.2 per cent to 2.36 million tonne and 6.76 lakh tonne, respectively during the reporting quarter. The figures could not be confirmed independently with the companies.
In June, steel consumption rose 9.5 per cent to 5.08 mt against 4.64 million tonne in the year-ago period. Production during the month rose 4.1 per cent to 5.01 mt this June over 4.81 mt in June last year.
Imports surged 73.2 per cent to 8.9 lakh tonne during the month, while exports slid by 20.5 per cent to 1.75 lakh tonne, revealing the slow pace of recovery in steel importing markets like the US and Europe.
Tata Steel and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam reported 0.7 per cent decline in production to 4.05 lakh tonne and 3.3 per cent to 2.35 lakh tonne respectively in June. According to the data, state-owned SAIL's output went down by 7.5 percent to 7.79 lakh tonne.
The production figures could not be confirmed with the companies.
