Essar Steel to reach targeted output of 3.6 MT by fiscal end

Domestic manufacturer Essar Steel today said it will produce the targeted 3.6 million tonnes (MT) of the metal by the end of this fiscal as it has no plans to trim output and sees demand for the commodity picking up in the near future.

"We will reach the targeted steel output of 3.6 million tonnes by the end of this fiscal. We will not be cutting production. First-half of the fiscal was good and we see the demand picking up in the second half," Essar Steel Holdings CEO J Mehra told reporters here today.

The Essar Group firm sees demand for the commodity coming from the Asian market even as it maintained that global steel offtake will remain flat.

"Globally, steel demand will be flat, but Asian demand is poised to grow," he said, commenting on the steel outlook for the second half of the fiscal.

Even as Indian steel companies are resorting to slash steel prices and production to tame the slackening demand, Ruias-led firm affirmed it will not cut output and prices will be in sync with market trend.

"There will be no cut in steel production. Our prices will be in line with the market," he added.

Domestic steel manufacturers, including Essar Steel, were operating at 70-75 per cent of their capacity, in a bid to match the slump in demand and check falling prices.

Globally, steel prices have almost halved from $1,250 a tonne earlier this year to around $600 per tonne at present.

Essar Steel, which runs a 4.6 MTPA capacity steel plant at Hazira in Gujarat, had recorded an output of over three million tonnes by the end of last fiscal.