SAIL facing order cancellations, re-scheduling due to lockdown: Report

Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has had some of its orders cancelled due to slower handling at ports because of the 21-day lockdown imposed by the central government to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the country. The move has hit movement of goods and shipments across the country, a source, on the basis of anonymity, told news agency Reuters.

The country's largest state-owned steel company faced a marginal hit to production as some of its inventory was piled up at ports owing to the situation.

Most steel companies have faced similar disruptions and have suspended operations at some of their plants due to the lockdown. While Tata Steel and ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India have downstreamed their production; Jindal Steel & Power is still operation, but if the situation continued for more than a week then it might impact production. JSW Steel Ltd said manufacturing operations in all of its locations have been since either scaled down or suspended.

The steel companies were facing logistics issues, on one hand, and dealing with lower demand as most of the user industries were reeling from the impact of the lockdown.

Meanwhile, people queued in several cities across the country for essential items, while trucks were stranded at state borders and public transport was suspended two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered the 21-day lockdown to protect a population of 1.3 billion.