The country's crude steel output rose by 10.7 per cent to 25.76 million tonnes (MT) in the January-March quarter of 2017, against 23.26 MT in the year- ago period, according to global industry body Worldsteel.
The global crude steel production was up 5.7 per cent at 410.54 MT in the first quarter of 2017 as compared to 388.31 MT in the same period a year ago, the World Steel Association (Worldsteel) said in a report today.
China witnessed a mere 4.6 per cent growth in crude steel production during the first quarter but the world's largest producer of the metal retained the top position with a production of 201.09 MT as against 192.31 MT in the three- month period a year ago, the report said.
Japan witnessed 1.5 per cent rise in production at 26.22 MT during the quarter under review as against 25.83 MT a year ago.
In March 2017, global crude steel production for the 67 countries reported to the global steel industry body was at 144.95 MT, up by 4.6 per cent, as compared to the 138.55 in the same period a year ago.
In March, India produced 9 MT crude steel, registering a growth of 8.2 per cent against 8.31 MT in the same month a year ago.
On a month-on-month basis, the country has posted a growth of 11.11 per cent in its crude steel production at 9 MT in March as against 8.1 MT in February 2017, the report showed.
India's 8.2 per cent growth rate for crude steel output in March was way ahead than China and Japan's 1.8 per cent during the month.
However, China produced 71.99 MT crude steel last month. It had produced 70.70 MT steel in March 2016.
Japan's steel output stood at 8.88 MT in March this year as compared to 8.72 MT in the year-ago month.
In the EU, Germany produced 3.9 MT of crude steel last month, an increase of 1.9 per cent compared to March 2016. Italy produced 2.2 MT crude steel, up by 9.5 per cent compared to the year-ago month. Spain produced 1.4 MT, up by 15.7 per cent and France saw a rise of 18.1 per cent at 1.3 MT over the year-ago period.
Turkey's crude steel production for March 2017 was 3.1 MT, up by 14 per cent over March 2016. The US produced 7 MT in March 2017, Brazil (2.9 MT).
"The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio of the 67 countries in March 2017 was 72.7 per cent. This is 2.2 percentage points higher than March 2016. Compared to February 2017, it is 2.0 percentage points higher," the report said.
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