Growth in India’s steel consumption slowed down to 0.5 per cent for the April – October 2014 period to 43.112 million tonnes, indicating a tough economic environment, as per the latest data from the Joint Plant Committee under the Ministry of Steel.
In the same period last year the country had consumed 42.9 million tonnes.
The slow down in growth for the April – October period was also due to lower demand in October. During the month, India consumed 6.53 million tonnes of steel, a drop of 1.3 per cent over the same month last year.
“The slow/negative growth numbers appear to reflect the lingering effect of economic slowdown and are further depressed by the decline in production for sale in October 2014 over October 2013,” the statement from JPC said.
Domestic steel makers produced around 10.31 million tonnes of steel in October 2014, which was 10 per cent lower than the same month last year.
However, during the period of April – October 2014, steel production grew 2.3 per cent to 50.61 million tonnes as compared to the same period last year.