Growth rate of steel production in India is the fastest among large producers

Even as global steel production fell 0.1% to 1.333 million tonnes in the first 10 months of this year, the growth rate in India remained in positive territory and was also the highest among the major steel producing countries in the world, including China and Japan.

Data from the World Steel Association (WSA) showed that steel output in India rose 6.8% from January to October to 79.5 million tonnes. China provided just 0.7% growth in the first 10 months of this year and produced 673 million tonnes of steel. Output in 10 months also declined in Japan, the United States and Russia by 0.4%, 1.6% and 1.4%, respectively. Apart from Asia, which only saw a 1% increase in production in 10 months, steel production declined in all major regions.

Despite the growth, India's position in the global steel order is unlikely to change from its current third position this year. India ousted the US in 2015 to become the world's third largest steel producer. China and Japan are ahead of India in terms of production.

However, the production gap between Japan and India narrowed at the end of October. The gap is likely to narrow further this year. India posted a whopping 12.3% production growth in October to 8.2 million tons, compared with Japan's production growth of just 0.6% to 9 million tons.

China's crude steel production in October 2016 was 68.5 tonnes, up 4% from October 2015. Steel output also increased by 2% in Russia to 5.9 million tonnes. However, US production fell 2.5% to 6.4 million tonnes. Germany produced 3.5 million tonnes of crude steel in October 2016, down 3.7% from October 2015. The capacity utilization rate in October 2016 was 69.6%, WSA said.