Kolkata - India's steel consumption in August rose by 4.6% to 7.416 million tonnes (mt) over the corresponding month last year and exports in the last month grew by 36%, a steel ministry's report said.
"Overall consumption at 7.416 mt in August 2017 was up by 7.4% over July 2017 and was up by 4.6% over August 2016," said the report of the ministry's Joint Plant Committee (JPC).
According to it, India's consumption of total finished steel saw a growth of 4.4% in the April-August period of the current fiscal to 35.329 mt over the same period last year, under the influence of rising production.
Exports of total finished steel increased by 57.1% to 3.73 mt in the April-August period over the same period last year and overall exports at 0.923 mt in August were up 20% over the previous month but grew by 36% over the year-ago month.
However, import of total finished steel at 3.458 mt in the first five months of the current fiscal grew by 15.9% over same period last year.
"Overall imports in August 2017 at 0.955 mt was up by 20% over July 2017 and was up by 62% over August 2016," the report said.
India was a net importer of total finished steel in the last month and maintained its net exporter status in the first five months of the current fiscal.
According to the provisional data released by JPC, production for sale of total finished steel in August was at 8.776 mt, up 2.3% over the year-ago month.
"Production for sale of total finished steel at 43.205 mt registered a growth of 5.9% during April-August 2017 over same period of last year," the report said.
During April-August, the ISP (Integrated Steel Plant) producers produced 25.23 mt, which was a growth of 12% while production for the other producers during the period was up by 0.3%.