JSW Steel production up 54% in Q2 this fiscal

JSW Steel, the country's largest private sector steel maker by domestic capacity, today said its production rose 54 per cent to 15.39 lakh tonnes in the second quarter of this fiscal on robust demand.

The company's crude steel production in the first half of the year ended September 30, 2009 was 29.16 lakh tonnes, up 48 per cent over corresponding period last year.

The company said crude steel production for the quarter ended September 30, was the company's highest quarterly output in the segment since inception. In the same period last year, crude steel production stood at 10.01 lakh tonnes, JSW Steel said in a statement.

Production of flat-rolled items, mainly used by auto and consumer durable industry, surged 28 per cent to 9.23 lakh tonnes in July-September quarter compared with the same period last year. JSW Steel produced 7.23 lakh tonnes of flat-rolled products in the corresponding quarter in 2008.

Its production of long-rolled steel products, primarily consumed by the construction sector, also surged by 216 per cent to 2.17 lakh tonnes in the quarter compared with the same period a year ago, when production stood at 68,000 tonnes.

JSW Steel had earlier this year enhanced the capacity of its Vijaynagar plant in Karnataka to 6.8 million tonnes and is hopeful of achieving a 70-72 per cent jump in output in 2009-10.