India. April-Sept steel output at 30.41m tonne

India. April-Sept steel output at 30.41m tonne.

India's finished steel output in the first half of the current financial year was at 30.41 million tonne, while imports were at 4.49 million tonne, Junior Steel Minister A. Sai Prathap said.
Prathap did not provide any comparable figure for the April-September period in 2009/10 in a written reply to lawmakers. In the 2009/10 fiscal year, India's finished steel production was at 59.69 million tonnes, and imports of the commodity were at 7.29 million tonne, the statement added.

India's steel demand is rising rapidly to cater to infrastructure development and consumer durable sales and the government expects crude steel capacity to rise to 120 million tonnes by 2012 from 72.9 million tonne in 2009/10.