The Joint Plant Committee (JPC), empowered by Ministry of Steel, in its latest report has said crude steel production of India increased 4.4% to 8.59 million tonne (MT) in April 2018, as against production of 8.22 MT in the same month of the previous year. Out of the total production, SAIL, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL), Tata Steel, Essar Steel, JSW Steel and Jindal Steel and Power together produced 5.01 MT during the month under review. It added that the rest 3.57 MT came from other producers, showing a growth of 1.4% over April 2017.
As per the report data, the output of hot metal was at 5.80 MT in April 2018, as compared to 5.38 MT during the year-ago month. Of the total hot metal output, 4.83 MT was produced by the six companies, the rest 0.96 MT came from other producers. Besides, output of pig iron rose 1.9% to 0.80 MT from 0.78 MT in April 2017.
According to World Steel Organisation (worldsteel), India outstripped Japan to become the second largest steel producer as its steel output grew 3.43% to 8.43 MT in February against 8.29 MT of the latter. Besides, India has set a target of producing 300 MT crude steel by 2030 with an investment of Rs 10 lakh crore. In this regard, the Cabinet last year approved the National Steel Policy (NSP).