India's steel production outstrips world average for August, at 1.7%

The country's steel production growth rate far outstripped the world average in August clocking a 5.2 per cent jump at 7.02 million tonnes (MT).

According to World Steel Association, global production rose by an average of 1.4 per cent in August to stand at 135 MT compared to the same month in the previous year.

While domestic steel output growth was spectacular mainly due to higher production by major producers, global average remained subdued during the reporting month primarily because of relatively lower production by China, which is the world's largest producer of the alloy.

Even in July, Chinese steel production grew by 1.5 per cent. Reporting a mere one per cent growth, China produced 69 MT steel in August 2014 compared to 68.2 MT in the same month a year ago, WSA data revealed.

However, for the January-August period, global average of the growth in steel production looked better at 2.4 per cent against the country's average of 1.8 per cent. During the eight-month period, world's steel production rose to 1,096 MT compared to domestic production of around 56 MT.

China produced 550 MT steel during the period.

At the end of the eight months of current year, India's position remained static among major steel producing nations at the fourth slot preceded by China, Japan and the United States.

For the last four years, the country's position in the world steel order has remained constant at the fourth slot. China's production growth rate during the first eight months was the highest at 2.6 per cent among the main steel producing nations.