India's finished steel consumption totaled 24.1 million mt in the first four months of the current Indian fiscal year (started April 1, 2013), almost stable compared to the level recorded in the same period last year, with just a 0.2 percent year-on-year increase, 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 26.1 million mt in the April-July period. Among the main producers, state-owned steel producer SAIL recorded a growth of 1.9 percent in finished steel output compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year with 3.4 million mt, while the finished steel output of RINL rose 8.5 percent to 923,000 mt and Tata Steel's finished steel output rose 23.3 percent to 2.36 million mt, both year on year.
In the period in question, Indian finished steel imports were down 36.7 percent year on year to 1.8 million mt, while the country's finished steel exports indicated a decrease of 4.2 percent year on year to 1.4 million mt.