Sluggish sales in the third quarter is likely to pull down steel giant JSW Steel's sales growth to 10 per cent this fiscal as against the expected 30 per cent, a top company official said.
"October-December was a very difficult quarter. People did not know about what was happening (in the economy)...For the full year, our growth could be at 10 per cent as against the earlier expected 30 per cent," JSW Steel Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Sajjan Jindal told reporters on the sidelines of an Assocham seminar here today.
The steel major has seen a pick up in sales volumes in January that would help it clock an around 50 per cent growth in the fourth quarter of the 2008-09 fiscal, Jindal said.
"We saw a 40 per cent growth in sales volumes in January over December. Moving ahead, we will see demand pick up in the steel sector.... We expect a quarter-to-quarter growth of 50 per cent in the fourth quarter," he added.
The steel-major doesn't have any plans to raise debt as of now and it was trying to reduce its dependence on debt over a period of time, Jindal said.