Coal shortage may prove a hurdle in the recovery of smaller steel players

Many units in this space expect capacity utilisation levels to drop drastically a few months down the line due to the crunch in the supply of the fossil fuel

Small, medium and secondary steel producers, which account for more than a third of steel production, are at pre-pandemic levels of production in the first five months of the current financial year, but shortage of coal may play a spoiler in the recovery.  

Data from Icra and JPC show production during April-August FY22 in the “other” category (comprised of small, medium and secondary producers) was 17.75 million tonnes (mt), up 45.6 per cent over FY21 and 0.4 per cent over FY20.  Total production was, however, up by 3 per cent compared to FY20 as the large players recorded a 4.6