JSW Steel, one of the largest Indian steelmakers, has posted an 11 percent year-on-year decrease in crude steel production to 637,000 mt in April this year.
According to the company's statement, in April JSW Steel produced 455,000 mt of flat rolled products, down 13 percent, while its long rolled product output amounted to 128,000 mt, decreasing by 17 percent, both compared with the corresponding month of the previous year.
According to JSW, the availability of high quality iron ore in sufficient quantities remained a challenge, impacting production and capacity utilization. Besides, the capacity utilization at its Vijayanagar Works remained at 73 percent against the background of the shutdown of one of its blast furnaces for 22 days. The blast furnace in question resumed operations on April 26 this year. Similarly, one of the blast furnaces at JSW's Salem unit was also shut down in April, recommencing production on May 6.