Eight key infrastructure industries posted a seven-month high growth of 6.8 per cent in February, largely driven by robust performance in cement, electricity and coal. This output growth performance was much higher than the dismal growth of 0.5 per cent in January and 6.4 per cent in February last year.
Coal output grew a robust 17.8 per cent in February, partly aided by the base effect. Coal production had contracted 5.8 per cent in same month last year. On cumulative basis, coal production grew a modest 0.4 per cent in April-February compared with the negative growth of 0.1 per cent during the same period last fiscal.
Electricity generation grew 8 per cent for the month under review, higher than the 7.2 per cent growth in same month last year. The cumulative growth for the April-February 2012 period stood at 8.6 per cent (5.4 per cent).
Cement output continued to post double-digit growth for the fourth consecutive month at 10.8 per cent. This is much higher than the 6.5 per cent growth seen in the same month last year. Cumulative cement output growth during April-February 2012 stood at 6.4 per cent (4.3 per cent).
Crude oil production grew a modest 0.4 per cent (12.2 per cent). Cumulatively, crude oil production registered a growth of 1.4 per cent during April-February this fiscal, significantly lower than 11.9 per cent in the same period in the previous fiscal.
Petroleum refinery products output grew 6.2 per cent (3.2 per cent). In cumulative terms, the production of petroleum refinery products was up 3.4 per cent during April-February 2012, higher than the 2.5 per cent growth last year.
However, natural gas output remained weak and contracted by 7.6 per cent (-7.3 per cent). For the April-February period, natural gas production contracted 8.8 per cent against a growth of 12.3 per cent.
Fertiliser and steel production grew 4.1 per cent (4.8 per cent) and 4.3 per cent (18.5 per cent), respectively, in February. Cumulatively, steel production grew 6.8 per cent during April-February 2012 against 9.2 per cent in the same period in the previous year.
For April-February 2011-12, the cumulative growth of the eight core industries, with 2004-05 as the base year, slowed down to 4.4 per cent (5.8 per cent).