TATA Steel said the steel consumption is likely to grow by about 5% in the current fiscal as a result of slowdown in demand from the real estate and automobile sectors.

Mr H M Nerurkar MD of TATA Steel told reporters on the sidelines of a CII event that "We still hold the view that we (India) should have the growth of around 5% in current fiscal.”

India's steel consumption grew by just 3.3% in last fiscal, the lowest in last three years. The consumption moved up by 5.5% in 2011-12 and 9.9% in 2010-11. In the first five months of the current fiscal, India's steel consumption grew by just 0.3% to 30.34 million tonnes.

Mr Nerurkar said slowdown in automobile and real estate would have impact on steel consumption this fiscal. He said that the country "is still growing, but not growing at the rate you want.” He added that construction, which consumes 60% of the steel in India, also needs to grow.