New Delhi, Mar 31 (IANS): India's eight major industries' output plummeted during February 2021, official data showed on Wednesday.

The Index of Eight Core Industries' reading for last month showed a decline of 4.6 per cent in output from an expansion of 6.4 per cent in the same month last year.

On a sequential basis, the output of eight major industries had expanded by 0.9 per cent in January 2021.

ECI index comprises 40.27 per cent of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

These industries comprise coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement, and electricity.

On a sector specific basis, the output of coal, which has a weight of 10.33 per cent in the index, showed a decline of (-) 4.4 per cent in February 2021 over the same month of the previous year.

Similarly, the output of refinery products, which has the highest weightage of 28.04, declined 10.9 per cent compared to the corresponding month of the last fiscal.

The electricity generation, which has the second highest weightage of 19.85, decreased by 0.2 per cent, whereas the steel production was down 1.8 per cent last month.

The extraction of crude oil, which has an 8.98 weightage, declined by 3.2 per cent during the month under consideration.

The sub-index for natural gas output, with a weightage of 6.88, fell by 1 per cent.

Cement production, which has a weightage of 5.37, slid by 5.5 per cent in the month under review.

Fertiliser manufacturing, which has the least weightage -- only 2.63 -- also fell by 3.7 per cent.