Indian state-run steelmaker Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has marginally cut down production at its steel mills by 7-10 percent on the third day of the national lockdown, company sources said on Friday, March 27.
The marginal production cuts are not owing to the direct operations of the steel mills, but are due to logistical issues like bringing in raw materials through road transport and dispatch of finished steel products from the steel mills.
If the plants were producing, products would have to be sold but trading hubs and transport networks are not working and SAIL cannot afford to keep producing and to increase inventories, and hence the marginal cut down in production is the first step, the source added.
SAIL’s pruning of production comes days after India’s Ministry of Steel issued an advisory to all government-owned steel and mineral producing companies to maintain production during the country-wide lockdown to counter the spread of the Covic-19 coronavirus.
SAIL has an installed capacity for production of 21 million ton of crude steel per annum from its five integrated steel mills located across India.