India’s core sector output rises 6.3% in August on strong steel, coal production

India’s eight core sectors recorded a strong 6.3% growth in August 2025, quickening from a 3.7% rise in July, driven by robust gains in steel, coal and cement production, government data showed on Monday.

The Index of Eight Core Industries (ICI), which makes up 40.27% of the country’s industrial production, measures the performance of coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity.

The latest growth marks a sharp improvement from July, when the final growth rate stood at 3.7%. During the April–August period of the current fiscal (2025-26), the cumulative growth of the core sector was recorded at 2.8%, provisional data showed.

Among the individual sectors, steel posted the highest growth, rising 14.2% in August, followed by coal at 11.4% and cement at 6.1%.

Fertiliser output increased 4.6%, petroleum refinery products 3.0% and electricity generation 3.1%.

However, the production of crude oil and natural gas continued to contract, declining 1.2% and 2.2%, respectively, during the month.

For the April–August period of the 2025-26 fiscal year, core sector output grew 2.8%.

Steel and cement maintained strong growth of 10.4% and 8.4%, respectively, while crude oil and natural gas production fell 1.7% and 2.5%. Coal output was marginally lower by 0.7% and fertiliser production dipped 0.8% in the five-month period.