India’s steel production growth rate highest among major producers
 

Even as global steel output saw a 0.1% contraction during the first 10 months of the current year, India’s production growth rate remained not just in the positive terrain, but was also the highest among the major steel producing nations in the world including China and Japan.
 
Data compiled by World Steel Association (WSA) showed that India’s steel production during the January-October period grew by 6.8% to stand at 79.5 MT. Global production fell 0.1% to 1,333 MT during the period from 1,334 MT in the corresponding period a year earlier.
 
With just 0.7% growth during the first 10 months of current year, China produced 673 MT steel. Output also declined in Japan, the US and Russia by 0.4%, 1.6% and 1.4% respectively. Apart from Asia, which saw just 1% growth in production; all major steel producing regions reported a decline in output.
 
Despite the growth, India’s position in the world order of steel production is unlikely to change from the present third position in the current year. India superseded the US in 2015 to become the third largest steel producer in the world. China and Japan are ahead of India in terms of production.
 
However, the gap in production between Japan and India are narrowing to stand at just 7.9 MT, as of October-end. The gap is likely to narrow further in the current year itself with India clocking a whopping 12.3% growth in production in October to 8.2 MT compared with Japan’s output growth of just 0.6% to 9 MT.
 
Most of the major steel producing nations recorded positive growth in October though, leading to a 3.3% overall growth in global output at 136.5 MT in October.
 
China’s crude steel production for October 2016 was 68.5 MT, an increase of 4 % compared to October 2015. It also increased by 2% in Russia to 5.9 MT. However, production fell in the US by 2.5% to 6.4 MT.
 
In the EU, Germany produced 3.5 MT of crude steel in October 2016, a decrease of 3.7% compared to October 2015. Spain produced 1.2 MT, down by 10.5% year-on- year.
 
The capacity utilisation ratio in October 2016 was 69.6%.