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JSW Steel today reported 9 per cent growth in annual crude steel production at 12.17 million tonnes in 2013-14, higher than its guidance. The company had reported 11.18 MT crude steel production in 2012-13.
Both the figures include steel production from the now merged JSW Ispat’s 3 MT Dolvi plant near Mumbai. “In spite of tough business environment of slow growth, inadequate availability and poor quality of iron ore and shortage of natural gas, the company exceeded the guidance for crude steel production by 0.17 million tonnes,” JSW said in a statement.
It had given the guidance of producing 12 MT crude steel on a consolidated basis for the last fiscal. However, it did not give the numbers from its main plant at Karnataka’s Vijayanagar, which has the capacity to produce 10 MT.
Last year, the company had said that it would produce 9.25 MT despite iron ore shortages. The company said that its production of flat steel was up 10 per cent at 9.74 MT, while production of long steel rose by 2 per cent to 1.83 MT. During the January-March quarter, JSW’s crude steel production was up 14 per cent at 3.15 MT.
It produced 2.48 MT flat steel and 0.48 MT long steel in the last quarter. Flat steel is largely used by automobile and consumer durables sectors, while long steel is used in the construction and infrastructure sectors.
The company has cut its product prices in the range of Rs 500-750 per tonne for this month. JSW Steel’s scrip was trading at Rs 1,056, down about a per cent, on the BSE.
