Tata Steel output rises up to 27% in Nov

Even as major steel producers have resorted to production cuts due to slump in demand, Tata Steel today said its output grew by up to 27 per cent in November.

The company's hot metal production surged to 5.78 lakh tonnes, a 26.8 per cent growth over corresponding month of the last fiscal, Tata Steel said in a statement.

The crude steel output stood at 5.14 lakh tonnes, up 23 per cent from 4.18 lakh tonnes in November last fiscal.

"Our blast furnaces and steel melting shops recorded their best ever production during November, even surpassing the previous best, which was in October," the company said.

 

However, due to planned shutdown of the hot strip mill for upgradation, the production of company's salable steel declined by 3.6 per cent to 4.07 lakh tonnes, it said.

Owing to slackening demand for steel in the midst of the global economic slowdown, leading steel producers like Ispat, Essar and JSW have cut their productions by up to 30 per cent.

Country's largest steel producer Steel Authority of India (SAIL), too, has re-oriented its products mix on the basis of the market demand.

As waning demand continues to hit their bottomlines, most of the major steel producers have also decided to temporarily apply brakes on their mega greenfield projects.

A couple of days back, Tata Steel Managing Director B Muthuraman said the company will accord higher priority to "high return" projects like Jamshedpur and Orissa while defer the ones proposed in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

State-run SAIL has already said that its long-term expansions would be in sync with the demand scenario. Hit by waning demand of the commodity, JSW Steel has also deferred the commencement of its additional 3 million tonnes capacity line at Vijaynagar plant in Karnataka.