News from India indicates that Kolkata-based steel manufacturer Ispat Industries Ltd (IIL) may cut as much as 40 percent of its steel production as demand from its main customers in the field of car-making, such as Ashok Leyland Ltd and Tata Motors Ltd, increasingly weakens.
According to IIL Managing Director Vinod Mittal, the company's sales will drop 25 percent in the year to March from a year earlier on the back of the reduction in output; and if the slowdown in the auto and infrastructure sectors continues, there will be further cuts in production.
IIL had previously announced a reduction in output by 35 percent in a bid to adjust supplies to demand.
Meanwhile, India's largest truck producer Tata Motorsshut has shut down its Jamshedpur plant from 6 to 8 October and its Lucknow factory from 10 to 15 November. It will also halt commercial vehicle production at its factory in Pune from 21 to 26 November.
In response to weakening steel demand, the Indian steel industry is insistent that the government should impose an import duty on all categories of steel to avoid the arrival of cheaper import materials from countries such as Ukraine and Thailand and in particular China, which last week removed export duties on various steel products.