SAIL sales down on poor demand, competition

Sales decreased by 2.71% during the period to 7.60 mn tonne compared to 7.81 mn tonne a year ago

Subdued demand for both long and flat products coupled with rising competition have negatively impacted SAIL's sales by nearly 3% at 7.60 mn tonne in the nine-month period ended December, a senior official said.

"Sales are down during the April-December period. We are facing problems for both flat and long products. Competition is there, demand has also come down for certain products like plates," SAIL's Finance Director Anil Chaudhary told PTI.

Long products are mostly used in the construction sector, while flat steels are used in automobile and consumer goods among others.

State-run Steel Authority of India's (SAIL) sales decreased by 2.71% during the period to 7.60 million tonne compared to 7.81 million tonne a year ago.

The sales of the company were also down in December, 2012 as well by 4.47% to 0.94 million tonne.

Meanwhile, during the period, India's steel consumption grew by 3.9% to 54.8 million tonne, which appear "subdued" in comparison with entire last fiscal's consumption growth of 7%.

Chaudhary said production of the company, however, went up by 1.59% during the April-December period as SAIL did not want to produce more "just to pile up the level of inventory."

SAIL produced 9.25 million tonne of saleable steel in the first nine months of the current fiscal compared to 9.10 million tonne in the corresponding period last fiscal.

Another steel-making PSU Rashtriya Ispat Nigam's sales have also declined by over 17% to 1.78 million tonne during the April-December period compared to 2.16 million tonne in the same period last fiscal.