India's steel production grew by 3 per cent to 59.62 million tonnes (MT) in the first nine months of the current year.

The country, the world's fourth largest steel maker, had produced 57.90 MT steel during the January-September period of the last year, according to World Steel Association (WSA) data.

Among major producers, India's rate of production growth was the second-best following China. China clocked 8 per cent growth during the January-September period to produce 587.38 MT steel.

Japan and the US produced more steel during the period than India at 82.43 MT and 65.24 MT respectively, but the pace of growth in these two countries was slower than India.

Japan clocked 1.4 per cent rate of growth in production while the US reported a negative growth of 4 per cent during the January-September period of the current year compared to a year ago output.

The global steel production rose by 2.7 per cent during the period at 1,186.21 MT compared to 1,154.79 MT during the same period last year, WSA said.

"The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio in September 2013 was 79.3 per cent and it is 2.1 percentage points higher compared to September 2012," WSA said.

Meanwhile, steel production growth in India fell short of the world average in September with the country clocking 4.7 percent growth compared to the world average of 6.1 percent. India's steel output grew to 6.54 million tonnes (MT) in September from 6.24 MT during the same month last year.