JSW Steel's April crude steel output dips 5% as it focuses on oxygen supply

In April, over 20,000 tonnes of LMO were supplied from firm's steel units; company was supplying 185 tonnes a day of LMO mid-April, which has now been raised to 1,200 tonnes

JSW Steel logged in a five per cent month-on-month drop in crude steel production this April as it stepped up supply of liquid oxygen for medical purposes.    

The company said on Tuesday that capacity utilisation was lower sequentially in April due to priority in supply of liquid oxygen for medical purposes over augmenting steel output.

Last month, Sajjan Jindal, Chairman and Managing Director, JSW, had said, “Saving lives is more important than producing steel. Production can suffer for as long as the country is in need of any resource available with the company.”

The production numbers shared by the company showed that crude steel production for the month of April was 1.37 million tonnes compared with 1.45 million tonnes in March, down five per cent. Year-on-year, however, it was a huge jump of 143.5 per cent from 563,000 tonnes in April 2020.

Production of flat rolled production was down nine per cent month-on-month to 957,000 tonnes and long products dropped by five per cent. The figures for April 2020 were 344,000 tonnes and 89,000 tonnes, respectively.

The company said the average capacity utilisation was 91 per cent in April versus 96 per cent in March.

In April over 20,000 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) were supplied from the firm's steel complexes. The company was supplying about 185 tonnes a day of LMO around mid-April, which has now been increased to 1,200 tonnes a day.

Steel companies from the private and public sector have been lending a helping hand to resolve the shortage in oxygen in the second Covid-19 wave.

According to a government release, on May 4, 2021, the total LMO production by the steel plants was 3,680.30 MT. The total LMO supply per day was up from an average 1,500-1,700 MT in mid-April to 3,131.84 MT on April 25, and further to 4,076.65 MT on May 4.

Companies are also setting up beds with gaseous oxygen for Covid treatment; steel PSUs are setting up 5,000 and another 5,000 are being set up by Tata Steel, AM/NS India, JSW Steel and Jindal Stainless.