Steel Production Looks Up

　　India's steelproduction grew at the fastest pace among the top producing nations across theworld in October at 8.5 per cent even as the average growth in world steeloutput remained stagnant.

　　India produced7.080 million tons (MT) of steel during the last month compared to 6.523 MT inthe same month last year, data prepared by World Steel Association(WSA) said today.

　　On the otherhand, production of steel declined during the month in major producing nationssuch as China, Japan and the USA, barring Russia which posted a 1.6 per centgrowth in October output compared to the same month last year.

　　China, theworld's largest producer of steel, reported a 0.3 per cent fall in production.Output fell by 1.7 per cent in Japan and by 0.7 per cent in the USA.

　　China, Japan,the USA and India are world's top four steel producing nations. The order hasremained unchanged for quite some years now.

　　These fourcountries contributed over 91 million tons (MT) to the world's total productionof 136.7 MT steel during October, which remained flat during the month.

　　China produced67.5 MT steel, Japan 9.4 MT and South Korea 6.2 MT, up by 4.5 per cent. The USAproduced 7.3 MT of crude steel in October.

　　Among theEuropean Union nations, Germany produced 3.5 MT of crude steel in October, adecline of 5.9 per cent compared to the same month last year. Italy produced2.1 MT, France 1.5 MT and Spain 1.3 MT.

　　Turkey's crudesteel production for October 2014 was 2.7 MT, down by 11 per cent over the samemonth last year. Brazil produced 3.1 MT, up by 2.7 per cent.

　　“The crude steelcapacity utilisation ratio in October 2014 was 74.7 per cent,” WSA said.

　　During the first10 months of the current year, world's steel production was up by two per centto 1,367.50 MT.

　　China remainedthe largest producer during the period at 685.34 MT, Japan 92.49 MT, the USA73.66 MT and India at 69.49 MT.