India's crude steel production dips to 7.9 MT in June

New Delhi: The country's crude steel production declined marginally by 1.1 per cent to 7.9 million tonnes (MT) in June, according to the latest report by World Steel Association.

The steel output stood at 8 MT in the same month last year, it said. However, the domestic production in the first six months of 2017 increased by 5.3 per cent to 49.48 MT over 46.9 MT in the same period of 2016, the data said.

Global steel production for the 67 countries reporting to World Steel Association (worldsteel) was 141 MT in June this year, registering an increase of 3.2 per cent over 136.6 MT in June 2016.

For the first six months of 2017, global steel production stood at 836.0 MT, up 4.5 per cent from 799.9 MT in the same period of 2016. While Japan produced 8.3 MT steel in June, a fall of 4.3 per cent from the year-ago period, the US produced 6.7 MT, down 1.7 per cent from 6.8 MT earlier.

The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio of the 67 countries in June 2017 was 73 per cent. This is 1.4 percentage points higher than June 2016. Compared to May 2017, it is 1.3 percentage points higher, it said.

India has overtaken the US to become the world's third largest steel producer and the country is now looking to bag the second spot from Japan. Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh had earlier said that India is heading towards becoming the second largest steel producer in the world.

"If you see what India produced last was 100 MT and Japan 104 MT. Soon, we will be second largest steel producer in the world," the minister had said.