The country’s infrastructure sector output grew to a seven-month high at 5.1 per cent in September due to double-digit growth in the production of coal, petroleum refinery products and cement.
The infrastructure output for eight core sectors — coal, crude oil, oil refineries, natural gas, steel, cement, electricity and fertilisers — was at 2.3 per cent in August 2012 and 2.5 per cent in September last year.
The eight core industries have a combined weight of 37.90 per cent in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). The pick-up in the infra segments is expected to push overall industrial growth.
Coal production registered a growth of 21.4 per cent in September 2012 compared to negative growth of 18.2 per cent in the same month last year. This is the highest growth in coal production in at least one year. It had grown by 11 per cent in August. Previously coal production had been facing problems due to regulatory issues in many states. Petroleum refinery production saw growth of 11.4 per cent in September 2012 compared to 4.3 per cent in the same month last year. Cement production grew by 13.4 per cent in September 2012 against its 2.2 per cent growth in the corresponding month the previous year.
However, crude oil and natural gas production continued to show negative growth. Crude oil production contracted by 1.7 per cent and natural gas out by 14.8 per cent. In this whole fiscal natural gas production has been in negative territory.
Fertiliser production grew by 5.7 per cent in September 2012 against a contraction of 2.1 per cent in the same month last year while electricity generation grew slower at 3.7 per cent in September against 8.8 per cent in same period last year. Steel production witnessed a growth of two per cent.