Posted on 23 Mar 2015
Indian steel producers reeling under deepening crisis of high imports and a host of other problems such as higher production cost due to dearer raw materials and inflated interest rates, have got a reason to cheer, as the country has overtaken the US to become the third-largest steel producer in the world with a production of 14.56 million tonnes (MT) in first two months of the year. Data compiled by World Steel Association (WSA) showed that the country's production growth was the highest during the January-February period at 7.6 per cent as compared to the global average of just 0.6 per cent at 127.6 MT.
WSA has said that the US, which was the third-largest steel producer since 2010, produced 13.52 MT during the January-February period, giving away its position to India with 14.56 million tonnes of production. China despite decline of 1.5 per cent production in the reported period, remained number one global steel producer with 130.5 MT. Japan, the second-largest producer, too reported a decline of 2.2 per cent to an output of 17.4 MT in the given period. China’s crude steel production for February 2015 was estimated at 65.0 MT, Japan produced 8.4 MT of crude steel in February 2015, while the US produced 6.3 MT of crude steel in February 2015, a decrease of -7.9% compared to February 2014.
The global agency has said that India which has been the fourth-largest steel producer for the past five years, behind China, Japan and the US, may retain the position given the fact that a lot of capacities are set to be commissioned during the year from its present installed manufacturing capacity of a little over 100 MT. World crude steel production for the 65 countries reporting to the World Steel Association was 128 million tonnes (MT) in February 2015.
