India’s JSW Limited’s production will take a hit during the April-June quarter this year owing to the pandemic and the ban on the use of oxygen for industrial purposes, and also due to consumption of steel being impacted by lockdown restrictions across the country, a company official said on Thursday.
“The company’s capacity utilization was 96 percent in March and has come down to 91 percent in April,” JSW managing director Seshagiri Rao said in a statement.
“With the demand for medical oxygen remaining at the same levels, steel mill capacity utilization in May could be on similar lines. So yes, there will be some impact on steel production which was four to five percent lower in April and would remain similarly lower in May,” he said.
“In April, steel consumption has come down to 6.7 million mt from 9.1 million mt in March, so there is an impact of about 3 million mt on the consumption side,” Rao said in the statement.