India’s domestic steel consumption in February stood at 6.84 million tons, a decline of 1.9% against January, but it rose by 4.7% from February 2015, as per the data compiled by steel ministry’s Joint Plant Committee. This is the first fall in domestic demand since November last year when steel consumption fell 15.5% to almost 6 million tons from the preceding month, but rose 11.2% from a year earlier.
However, steel imports last month fell marginally by 0.1% to 0.91 million tons compared with January 2016, but the decline was much steeper at 7.3% compared with the same month of previous year. This is the fourth consecutive year-on-year decline in in-bound shipments. Steel production in India rose by 1.8% year-on-year to 7.3 million tons in February this year.