By Nageshwar Patnaik in Bhubaneswar, December 26, 2016 : Steel production in India registered 10.7% growth in November and 7.1% in the year so far while global steel production remained flat in the first 11 months of the current year at 1,468 MT, World Steel Association (WSA) data revealed.

Though steel output has shot up, capacity utilization did not go up. Capacity utilization did increase sharply early this year and peaked in June, but started declining since.

India is expected to continue as the world’s third largest steel producer in the current year, same as last year. India had gone past the US as the third largest steel producer in 2015 with new capacity addition and growth in output,
However, with the current rate of production growth and likely additional capacity to go on stream in the coming months, India may overtake Japan as the second largest steel producer in 2017. The steel output in Japan has been on a decline this year. Japan produced less steel in November this year than in the same month last year, WSA report said.

With 739 MT, China contributed the maximum to the global production during the January-November period followed by Japan at 96 MT, India at 88 MT, the US 72 MT and Russia at 65 MT.
Global steel production was at 1,463 MT during the January-November period of last year in which half of the contribution came from China. Japan produced 97 MT, India 82 MT, the US 73 MT and Russia 65 MT.

Overall, global production grew by 5% in November to stand at 132 MT. China produced 66 MT steel during the month. Japan produced 8.6 MT and India produced 8 MT. The US and Russia produced 6.2 MT and 5.9 MT steel respectively during the month.