India's steel consumption in the first 11 months of current fiscal grew by just three per cent to 69.21 million tonnes on poor economic growth even as imports jumped by 67.3 per cent, making the country a net importer.
"India's consumption of total finished steel saw a growth of 3 per cent in April-February at 69.218 million tonnes (MT) over same period of last year," data compiled by Joint Plant Committee, a unit under the Steel Ministry, showed.
Domestic real consumption of total finished steel at 6.4 MT in February was up by 1.2 per cent against the same month last year; while compared to January this year, consumption decreased by 4.5 per cent.
"The slow year-on-year growth in consumption in February, 2015 and its decline over January, 2015 appear to reflect the lingering effect of economic slowdown and is further depressed by declining growth rate in production for sale in February over the same period of last year and January 2015, both," JPC said.
Imports of total finished steel stood at 8.387 MT during the April-February of the current fiscal and saw a growth of 67 per cent over the same period of last year, it said, adding India remained a net importer of total finished steel during the period.
Exports, on the other hand, were down by 11.2 per cent in the first 11 months to stand at 4.8 MT over the same period of last year.
Production for sale of total finished steel at 83 MT, up by 4.6 per cent during April-February period of the current fiscal. Integrated steel plants such as SAIL, Tata Steel and RINL produced 42.49 MT during the period; while the remaining came from mini and other producers.
