India's domestic crude steel production almost flat at 8.662 MT in April 2019

India’s domestic crude steel production remained almost flat at 8.662 million tonne (MT) during April 2019, according to a report by the Joint Plant Committee (JPC). The report stated that the crude steel production was up by just 0.1 per cent from its April 2018 output.

The report by the Joint Plant Committee (JPC), which comes under the domain of Ministry of Steel, said that 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 crude steel. The remaining 3.58 MT was produced by other companies.

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 tonne by 2030-31. However, given the current status of growth, it looks a herculean task to achieve the target in the set deadline.

(With inputs from PTI.)