India's crude steel output jumps 5% to 8.6MT in Oct:worldsteel

India's crude steel production rose 5.3% to reach 8.629 million tonnes (MT) in October 2017, global steel body worldsteel said in a report.

The country had produced 8.197 million tonnes of steel during the same month last year, the World Steel Association (worldsteel) said.

According to the report, India's steel output during January-October 2017 was 6.4% higher at 84.123 MT, as against 79.073 MT during the corresponding period of 2016.

Japan, the second largest crude steel producing nation, reported a 1% contraction in output at 8.971 MT in October 2017, compared to 9.060 MT during same month last year.

During the first ten months of 2017 too Japan's steel output dipped 0.2% to 87.239 MT from 87.442 MT in the year-ago period.

India is already the world leader in stainless steel production and the third largest crude steel producer.

China maintained its position as the world leader in crude steel production, registering a 6.1% rise in output during last month as well as January-October period of 2017.

In October, China produced 72.362 MT of crude steel as against 68.228 MT in the year-ago month.

The country produced 709.500 MT in January-October 2017 compared to 668.459 MT in the year-ago period.

During October 2017, global steel output stood at 145.254 MT, 5.9% higher than 137.214 MT in October 2016.

Worldsteel has 66 member countries, representing approximately 85% of the world's steel production.

"The crude steel capacity utilisation ratio of the 66 countries in October 2017 was 73.0%. This is 3.0 percentage points higher than October 2016. Compared to September 2017, it is 0.6 percentage points lower," it added.