India’s cement industry experienced a 1% drop in output in October, according to monitoring of the eight core industries. In the April – October period, cement growth was 8.1%, contributing to overall core sector growth of 4.3%. This is slightly ahead of the 4.2% growth achieved in the same period of 2013. The cement sector alone achieved 3.2% growth in September, 10.3% growth in August and a huge 16.5% growth in July.
Growth in the eight key infrastructure sectors combined reached 6.3% in October thanks to a surge in coal production (+16.2%), electricity generation (+13.2%) and refinery products (+4.2%). This compares to a core growth rate of 1.9% in September and a decline of 0.1% in October 2013. However, analysts warn that the growth of coal production and electricity generation may not be sustainable, given the low base.
The eight core industry sectors are coal, fertilisers, electricity, crude oil, refinery products, natural gas, steel and cement.
Edited from various sources by Katherine Guenioui
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