Domestic crude steel production witnessed a 4.6 per cent increase at 8.45 million tonnes (MT) in July, according to official data. This is against the total output of 8.082 MT of crude steel in the same month a year ago.

“During April-July 2017, crude steel production was 33.011 MT, a growth of 3.8 per cent over the same period of the last year,” the Joint Plant Committee (JPC), under the Ministry of Steel, has said in its latest report. “SAIL, RINL, TSL, Essar, JSWL and JSPL together produced 18.795 MT... The rest 14.216 MT came from other producers,” it said.

The country had produced 31.80 MT steel during the first four months of the preceding fiscal. In April-July, hot metal output stood at 21.397 MT, registering a growth of 1.8 per cent over the same period last year, the JPC said in its report, adding, “Overall hot metal production last month at 5.526 MT was 3.5 per cent up over July 2016 and 6.1 per cent over June 2017.”

During the four-month period, the country’s pig iron production for sale was at 3.043 MT, a fall of 3.2 per cent over the same period last year. Overall production for sale of pig iron last month at 0.758 MT was up of 0.5 per cent over June 2017 but was down 4.2 per cent over July 2016. “Production of total finished steel for sale was at 34.43 MT during April-June 2017, a growth of 6.9 per cent over same period of last year,” the report said.

Last month, overall production for sale of total finished steel was at 8.256 MT, down 5 per cent over June 2017 but was up by 9 per cent over July 2016, it said.

Empowered by the Ministry of Steel, the JPC is the only institution in the country, which collects data on the Indian iron and steel industry.

India is the third largest producer of crude steel in the world after China and Japan. The country is now aiming to grab the second spot.

The steel ministry has set an ambitious target of taking the country’s steel output to 300 MT by 2030-31 from 100 MT at present and is taking various measures to boost the sector. The government has approved the National Steel Policy 2017 (NSP) in this regard. It has also given nod to another policy for providing preference to domestically manufactured iron and steel products in government procurements.

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