Domestic steel makers are going to get an encouragement with World Steel Association (WSA) report that India retained its position as the world's third-largest steel producer, with a production of 14.6 million tonnes (MT) in the first quarter of 2015. In February, India toppled the US to become the world's third-largest steel producer, after China and Japan.
In March, the country’s crude steel production grew by 10 percent to 7.2 MT, while the global average declined by 2.7 percent, led by China, which produces half of the world's steel witnessing a decline of around 2 percent to 203.5 MT in the first three months of the year. World number two steel producer Japan too saw a fall of 3 percent to report production of 26.74 MT during the January-March period.
World Steel Association has said that with Chinese growth slowing down to multi-decadal low, India will lead the world steel output growth, which is expected to touch 2,000 million tonnes by the turn of 2030 clipping at 25 per cent from 2014. India's steel production rose by 7.9 per cent to 88.12 million tonnes last fiscal compared with the previous year.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had linked steel production to India's defence preparedness and said India cannot afford to lag behind China in this field. The government has set a target of 300 million tonne steel production by 2025 to become the second largest steel producer globally.