Tata Steel's growth in positive terrain leaving rest behind

NEW DELHI: Leaving rivals in public and private sector gasping for breath, Tata Steel has stolen the show by registering a 12.6 per cent growth rate in production during the fiscal that just ended.

The world's sixth largest steel maker marched ahead of its counterparts like SAIL, RINL, JSW and Essar to produce 5.6 million tonnes of crude steel even as the others slipped into the negative terrain amid slackening demand.

While Tata Steel's crude steel output increased by 0.6 million tonnes from 5 million tonnes in the year-ago period, that of state-run SAIL dipped by 3.9 per cent to 13.4 million tonnes, as per provisional figures of the Steel Ministry.

In 2007-08, the country's largest public sector steel maker SAIL had produced 13.9 million tonnes of crude steel.

However, hit by a slump in demand from automobile and construction sectors, not only SAIL, but also RINL, Essar Steel, JSW Steel and Ispat Industries saw their output slip into the negative zone in 2008-09.

The crude steel production of JSW Steel declined by 1.4 per cent to 3.1 million tonnes as against the previous year's 3.14 million tonnes.

Essar Steel too witnessed about 10 per cent dip in output at 3.2 million tonnes from 3.5 million tonnes while Ispat Industries recorded the highest 19.3 per cent fall in output at 2.2 million tonnes from 2.8 million tonnes.