India’s Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) achieved a steel output of 1.99 million mt in the first quarter (April-June) of the fiscal year 2022-23, down six percent year on year, a company statement said on Thursday, July 21.
The company reported sales of 1.74 million mt during the quarter, down 16 percent year on year.
JSPL said that production of direct reduction iron (DRI) at its mill at Angul, Odisha, was lower during the quarter owing to a shortage of availability of coal, while output at its mill in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh, was lower owing to the plant shutdown.
The government’s imposition of 15 percent export tax in late May this year weighed on the sales of the company, with both domestic and export volumes impacted during the quarter. Domestic volumes were lower by 12 percent while exports fell by around 26 percent, year on year, JSPL managing director V R Sharma said in a statement.
“Europe is starving for material. They want any quantity but the international prices are also under pressure with the 15 percent export tax. There are certain customers for value-added grades of steel and buyers overseas still prefer to buy from India and these products have not been impacted by the export tax,” he said.
He said that JSPL did not have any planned plant shutdowns scheduled during the April 2022-March 2023 fiscal year, but intermittent shutdowns could happen whenever required owing to lower thermal coal availability or breakdowns at mills.
