World’s average steel production grew by 1.9 per cent, more than double the rate India clocked, raising possibility of spurt in imports to keep pace with demand in the country.
India produced 6.450 million tonnes (MT) steel in June, a mere 0.9 per cent growth vis-a-vis 6.392 MT a year ago, World Steel Association (WSA) said in its monthly report today.
On the other hand, global production of the metal grew to 132 MT during June compared to 129.229 MT in June last year, led largely by a 4.6 per cent growth in Chinese production.
India’s production growth rate in first six months of the year, however, is a little higher when compared to the world’s average growth during the period. For India, it was 2.5 per cent at 39.36 MT and two per cent for the world at 789.79 MT.
China, as usual, produced maximum steel during June at 64.66 MT. Japan produced 9.3 MT and South Korea 5.5 MT, a dip of 5.4 per cent.
Among European Union nations, Germany produced 3.7 MT, Italy produced 2.2 MT and France produced 1.4 MT.
Turkey’s crude steel production for June 2013 was 3 MT, a slight increase of 0.5 per cent compared to June 2012.
Russia produced 5.7 MT, a dip of 0.8 per cent and Ukraine produced 3.1 MT. The US produced 7.2 MT of steel in June 2013, down by 0.2 per cent in June 2012. Brazil produced 2.8 MT, an increase of 2.7 per cent.
“The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio in June 2013 declined slightly to 79.2 per cent from 79.6 per cent in May 2013,” the WSA report added.