India's finished steel consumption was down 0.8 percent to 11.7 million mt in the first two months of the current Indian fiscal year (started April 1, 2013), compared to the 11.8 million mt recorded in the same period last year, according to provisional estimates released by the Joint Plant Committee (JPC) which is part of India's Ministry of Steel.
According to the data, the country's finished steel production rose by 3.1 percent year on year to 13 million mt in the April-May period. Among the main producers, state-owned steel producer SAIL recorded negative growth in output, with 1.6 million mt, down 3.8 percent compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, while the finished steel output of RINL rose 4.5 percent to 468,000 mt and Tata Steel's finished steel output rose 32 percent to 1.2 million mt, both year on year.
In the period in question, Indian finished steel imports were down 41.2 percent year on year to 898,000 mt, while the country's finished steel exports were up 28.4 percent year on year to 842,000 mt.