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India's 2003-04 steel output seen up 6.5%
By siliconindia staff writer
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Thursday, 06 November 2003, 20:30 IST
NEW DELHI: India expects to produce about 35 million tonne of finished steel in this fiscal year, up 6.5 per cent from 32.85 million tonne in the past year, Steel Minister Braja Kishore Tripathy said on Thursday.
"This has been a good year for the steel industry, domestic consumption is rising and Indian steel is finding its way to other countries. I think the next six months will be even better," Tripathy told a news conference.
Tripathy said he expected domestic consumption this year to be 30 million tonne and exports five million tonne. India consumed 28.9 million tonne of steel in 2002-03 and exported 4.2 million tonne.
The country's steel industry, the world's ninth biggest, is expected to be helped this year by robust economic growth, forecast at over seven per cent, spurred by good monsoon rains.
Rising steel prices in the past few months helped by growing domestic and export demand have also helped boost the financial performance of the industry, Tripathy said.
India's production of finished steel is estimated to have risen 7.4 per cent in the first half of this fiscal year ended September to 17.05 million tonne while exports jumped 35.6 per cent to 2.65 million tonne.