Core Industries Output Rises 5% in September

Country's infrastructure industries' output rose by 5 per cent in September compared to the same month of the last fiscal, on the back of higher production of steel, cement and refinery products, official data showed.

NEW DELHI: The gauge for select factory output -- Index of Eight Core Industries (ECI) -- had increased by 3.2 per cent in August and had risen 3.7 per cent in the corresponding month of 2015.

The cumulative growth during April to September increased by 4.6 per cent.

The data which represents the output of major infrastructure sectors was released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The ECI comprise of nearly 38 per cent weightage of the items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

The index includes sectors like coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel (alloy and non-alloy), cement and electricity.

Steel, fertilisers, refinery products and cement reported healthy output, whereas production of coal, natural gas and crude oil declined.

Electricity generation, which has the highest weightage of 10.32 per cent in the IIP, went up 2.2 per cent in September, as compared with the corresponding month of 2015.

Steel production, the second most important component as per weightage of 6.68 per cent, surged the maximum among all the sub-indices. It zoomed by 16.3 per cent in the month under review.

Distilling of refinery products, the third most important component as per weightage, was higher by an impressive 9.3 per cent in September, as compared with the corresponding month of last year.

However, extraction of crude oil, which has a 5.21 per cent weightage in IIP, decreased by 4.1 per cent during last month as compared to September, 2015.

Coal mining, with a 4.38 per cent weightage, decreased by 5.8 per cent last month.

Cement production, which has the weightage of 2.41 per cent, increased by 5.5 per cent in September 2016.

On the other hand, the sub-index for natural gas output, with a weightage of 1.71 per cent, declined by 5.5 per cent during the month under consideration.

Fertiliser manufacturing, which has the least weightage of only 1.25 per cent rose by 2 per cent in August.