India's steel production ranked the seventh in the world in 2006, up from the ninth in 2004, according to the Indian Government Monday.

Indian Minister of State for Steel Akhilesh Das quoted Brussels- based International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI)'s study as saying that India produced 44 million tons of crude steel in 2006, 7.6 percent more than the 40.9 million tons in the previous year.

"Keeping in view the importance of the steel industry in the country, the Government formulated a National Steel Policy in 2005, aiming at a production level of 110 million per annum by 2019-20," Das said when addressing the Parliament here Monday.

The Indian government has taken several steps to increase production by expanding capacities of state-run steel plants and removal of policy bottlenecks, he said.

According to IISI, China remained the first with an annual production of 418.8 million tons of crude steel, followed by Japan (116.2 million), the United States (98.5 million) and Russia (70.6 million).

In 2006, the Asian region produced 53.7 percent of the world total crude steel, up from 38.4 percent ten years ago, the report said.

Source: Xinhua