India’s steel production declined by 2.4 per cent in November due to stagnant consumption amid subdued economic growth and poor off-take from end-use sectors such as construction and white goods.

India, the world’s fourth largest steel maker, produced 6.250 million tonnes (MT) steel in November this year against 6.403 MT in the same month last year, World Steel Association (WSA) said in a report.

The world’s average growth in production was way better at 3.6 per cent at 127.364 MT in the month. This is mainly because of 4.2 per cent growth in Chinese production. The US also clocked a 5.3 per cent growth in output.

India’s steel consumption grew by just 0.4 per cent in April—November period due to poor demand from automobile and white goods sectors in an economy which grew by 4.6 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal.

During the 11—month period beginning from January, steel production in India grew by 1.9 per cent to 72.338 MT compared to the world’s average growth of 3.2 per cent to 1,447.740 MT in the same period.

China produced 60.879 MT steel in November taking the total output to 712.864 MT in the January—November period. It is the world’s largest steel—making nation. World’s second largest steel producer Japan produced 9.26 MT steel in November and 101.224 MT during January-November period.

The US, the third largest steel producer, produced 7.14 MT steel in November and 79.798 MT during the 11—month period. WSA said steel capacity utilisation in November 2013 was 75.8 per cent.