JSW Steel output may dip by 17% in Dec

Steel producer JSW Steel today said its production in December may decline by up to 17 per cent as compared to the corresponding month last year.

The steel maker had reduced its output by 20 per cent last month.

"Our production in December will be 15-17 per cent lower than the output of the same month last year," JSW Steel Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Sajjan Jindal said on the sidelines of an international coal conference here.

Even as the demand for steel has declined by over 30 per cent during the last few months due to global economic crisis, Jindal said JSW Steel would run its plant at full capacity from next month as it expects the demand to pick up.

"We see steel demand picking up. Barring auto sector, the demand is coming from infrastructure and other allied sectors. We plan to revive production at all our units from January," he said.

Jindal Steel, which has put on hold the commencement of its enhanced production line of 3 million tonnes at Vijaynagar Plant in Karnataka, is optimistic to start operations from March next year.

Vijaynagar plant produces about 3.8 million tonnes of the commodity per annum. Post-expansion, the company is set to become India's largest private sector steel company with a total capacity of 7.8 million tonnes (including 1 million tonnes at Salem).