Covid-19: Steel firms expect no production disruption amid oxygen diversion

Market cap of top four steelmakers up 29% in April so far; demand from China is a strong tailwind

Steel manufacturers don’t expect any disruption in metal production despite the diversion of part of the industry’s captive oxygen production for medical use amid the rapid surge in Covid-19 infections across the country. Primary steel producers, such as Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Steel Authority of India, Jindal Steel & Power (JSPL), and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) are some of the largest producers of industrial oxygen in the country through their captive plants.
 
Most of these steel producers are supplying liquid oxygen from their manufacturing plants to different states. Mumbai-based JSW Steel, for example, is currently supplying 600 tonne of