Crude steel output post marginal gains in April FY20

India's crude steel output remained almost flat at 8.662 million tonnes (MT) during April 2019, according to official data. The domestic crude steel production stood at 8.653 MT during April 2018, according to a report by the Joint Plant Committee (JPC), which comes under the Ministry of Steel.

"Crude steel production stood at 8.662 MT in April 2019, up by 0.1 per cent over April 2018," the report said. State-run Steel Authority of India Ltd, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd along with private firms Tata Steel, Essar Steel, JSW Steel, and Jindal Steel and Power produced 5.082 MT and the remaining 3.58 MT came from other producers, it added.

During April this year, the production of hot metal was 1.4 per cent down at 5.825 MT, against 5.907 MT in April 2018. The output of pig iron grew 3.9 per cent to 0.537 MT in April, compared with about 0.517 MT in the same month a year ago.

The JPC is the only institution in the country that collects data on the domestic iron and steel sector. India has set an ambitious target of increasing its crude steel production capacity to 300 million tonnes by 2030-31.